


Outfoxed

by enigmaticEditor



Series: local polycule threatens to cover all of paris [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Autistic Kagami Tsurugi, Autistic Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, F/F, F/M, Identity Reveal, Lila Rossi Bashing, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Multi, POV Alya Césaire, Polyamory, also known as the just and moral thing to do in every miraculous fic, alya césaire carries this show on her back and you will respect her or die by my sword, and alya and nino are just chilling in their established and secure poly/open relationship, and is also a middle finger to everyone who hates alya because of chameleon and ladybug, because this is the alya vs. lila fic we all deserve, except it’s not important because it’s off-screen and alya isn’t a part of it, helps that this show had what amounted to an actual poly date, here i’ll go ahead and start us off in the tags, i can and will use both, look i can’t write anything without fluffy poly shenanigans it’s just not possible, oh and don’t think we hating on adrien either. kid’s just as much of a victim here, oh and speaking of things made obvious by subtext, or pen rather, she’s the only one who RESISTED lila you absolute clowns, similarly while adrienette and adrigaminette are things alyanette takes center stage as it deserves, that's just canon but i have to address it it's so important and good, the only thing he did wrong was be way too selfless like usual, there may also be way too many maribug jokes whoops, this sausage-haired bitch isn’t even good at lying she’s obviously just cheating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:55:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 23,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23908072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enigmaticEditor/pseuds/enigmaticEditor
Summary: Lila Rossi is not a Miraculous wielder. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have power. Alya was under her spell, along with so many others, until the day Lila unknowingly overstepped herself. Freed at last, the true Fox recognizes magic when she sees it, even if it doesn’t come from a source she understands. She is none too happy about this pretender abusing her natural gifts to make fools of Alya and those she loves.Alya Césaire might need an enchanted necklace and the aid of a tiny deity to cast illusions, but she swore to use her borrowed abilities for the greater good long ago. There is none better suited to facilitate the liar’s downfall.And maybe she’ll help her best friend sort out her increasingly complex love life along the way.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Kagami Tsurugi, Alya Césaire/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe
Series: local polycule threatens to cover all of paris [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049237
Comments: 275
Kudos: 842





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic, like many others written during this particular hiatus, operates in that weird grey area of “Marinette is the Guardian, but Gabriel knowing the identities of all the other heroes isn’t a concern, and no one’s, like, arrested Chloé for willingly aiding a supervillain.” I could explore this, there are many ways for it to be explained or justified, but honestly? Fuck it. Who cares. That’s not what I’m here to do.

Alya Césaire was no stranger to magic. She had never been, really, but the battle raging in Paris for the last year and a half had brought her up close and personal with the extraordinary in more ways than one. From the moment she saw Stoneheart on that video screen, to receiving a Miraculous of her own, to fighting a small army of villains with her teammates at her side, Alya had learned the ins and outs of kwamis and akumas and glamours. 

That last one in particular was a source of much frustration for a budding reporter and journalist (and hardcore superhero fan and hopeless bisexual disaster). She’d realized early on, while attempting the brute-force tactic of simply editing a Ladybug mask onto every suspect, that there was some sort of low-level enchantment preventing her from discovering a Miraculous wielder’s identity quite so easily. Alya could throw theories at the wall all she liked, and she certainly had, but until she saw them transforming, she wouldn’t be able to spot the heroes in civilian form if they were sitting right next to her. 

After becoming Rena Rouge the first time, she’d gained the slightest awareness of the glamour. It was like an itch in the back of her skull, confusing her and clouding her thoughts when she tried to focus on it. The feeling had been almost constant, in fact, at least for the past few months. Alya suspected that Ladybug had chosen someone else in her class. It would be smart of her, as frequently as Chloé caused akumatizations. 

Someone else besides Nino, that is. There had been a brief moment of excitement when she’d figured out his identity, thinking that her powers over illusion might be granting her some sort of immunity. She’d _felt_ the glamour shatter like so much broken glass the moment Carapace said “dude” in Nino’s exact tone. After that, it was impossible to fail to see her boyfriend behind the mask. And yet, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and every other temporary hero (aside from Queen Bee, of course) had eluded her perception. Whether it was because the first two were more powerful, or because she just didn’t know them well enough, or because she didn’t have the necklace on her person at all times… 

Theories, theories, theories. Never facts. 

Well, until now. Her assumption that the fuzziness in her head during classtime was due to a hiding Miraculous wielder had just been proven false. In an instant that left her reeling, the jagged edges of the broken deception stabbing at her mind, what was unmistakably a glamour collapsed. And there wasn’t a superhero in sight. 

Quite the opposite. 

_“Oh, no! Ladybug would kill me if- you two can’t tell anyone what you saw, okay? It’s really important! Please!”_

Lila had tripped in front of Alya and Alix on the way out of the classroom during lunch, and a foxtail necklace resembling but not identical to Alya’s Miraculous had come tumbling out of hiding. She’d gasped dramatically, stuffed it back under her shirt, and made a show of swearing the two spectators to secrecy. 

Alya had only just enough sense left to nod dumbly. Thankfully, Lila didn’t stick around, off to talk to Rose and Juleka. 

Off to her next _targets._

The moment Lila Rossi was out of sight, Alya scurried to the locker room and sat down on a bench, breathing hard. She couldn’t tell if the sour taste in her mouth was something Trixx had passed on to her, a kind of extra sensitivity to malicious lies, or if it was just her own bile. 

She’d only seen Carapace for a few moments before figuring out his identity. When her memories had rewritten themselves, recalling Nino’s mannerisms in everything the turtle hero had done, it hadn’t been too much of a shock to her senses. Besides, he hadn’t been trying to hide it. 

This, on the other hand, was a nightmare. She’d never been heavily invested in Lila’s stories, vaguely aware there was probably a little bit of overselling going on, but she’d never questioned them either. She’d even posted interviews with Lila on her blog, guessing that it might be some kind of ploy by Ladybug to have this girl openly claim to be her closest friend. Only now did Alya’s mind scream at her that Ladybug would never, in a million fucking years, risk a civilian’s safety like that. That was the very antithesis of everything she was and everything she had to be. 

Furthermore. Since when was the job of “diplomat” equivalent with “celebrity” like Lila seemed to claim? Even if she did get around that often because of her mother’s job, why would a kid be allowed to move in such circles? Why had no one famous ever mentioned her? Oh, she’d claimed to not want the attention, but that was easily the most transparent lie of all. 

For fuck’s sake. Didn’t she say she’d saved that rock star’s kitten once? The rock star famous for, in part, having a _crocodile_ for a pet? It’s like she wasn’t even trying to be subtle, relying entirely on whatever twisted power she had that turned everyone’s thoughts to mush when they tried to think critically about anything she said. 

That might just be her undoing, if Alya had anything to say about it. Lila was standing on a house of cards poorly superglued together, and a single irrefutable truth would not just send it tumbling down but reveal that there was never any skill involved in its construction to begin with. She’d need Ladybug (and possibly Rena Rouge) just to be safe- this was magic they were dealing with, after all- but it would be well worth it to start to come up with a plan on her own. Hmm. Marinette knew Jagged Stone, the man practically fancied himself her uncle, maybe she could get him to- 

Alya’s eyes shot open. She didn’t remember squeezing them shut. 

_Marinette._

  


Her best friend was easy enough to track down. Marinette had taken to spending the lunch break at her own home instead of with her classmates as of late. Alya had supposed it was because of her most recent attempt to get over Adrien, and maybe there was something to that, but now she knew what was very likely the real reason. 

Sabine Cheng didn’t even look at her twice as she headed up. It was far from the first time Alya had stomped into Marinette’s place like an oncoming storm, worked up about something or other. Usually Marinette’s latest egregious fumble over her crush, or plans they’d made that the girl had ghosted on. She knew Marinette relied on her best friend to hold her accountable when she messed up, and Alya expected the same of her. 

That was why _this_ hurt so much. Magic or no, if Marinette had broken Lila’s spell on her own- and Alya very much wanted to know when and how exactly she’d done that- she should have forced Alya to see it. Hell, claiming it was magic would have made her _more_ likely to listen, not less! Marinette should know that about her! It would have worked! She refused to accept that whatever power Lila Rossi wielded was stronger than the bond between her and Marinette. 

God, that sounded cheesy. But it was true, and the idea that Marinette didn’t think the same… no, Alya couldn’t let herself believe that, either, or she’d just curl into a ball and cry. 

Which… is exactly what she found Marinette doing. What the hell. 

Alya rushed to her side, putting aside her mixed guilt and anger for the moment. “Hey. Hey, I’m here. What’s wrong, girl?” 

Marinette shook her head. 

“Can’t speak?” 

Marinette nodded. 

“Okay. Contact or no?” 

Another shake of the head. Alya settled down next to the chaise on which her friend lay and waited quietly. Marinette’s breakdowns, at least, were something she was used to handling. Do as much or as little as she needed, give her a couple minutes, and she’d be right as rain. There was a core of strength in the girl that Alya envied. When _she_ had bad days, it took a tub of ice cream and entirely too many blankets to rouse her from her stupor. 

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before Marinette shifted and gave Alya a nudge. A silent thanks. It was a relief to see that despite Lila driving a wedge between them for months now, Marinette still trusted her like this. “Up to talk about it?” 

“Just. I think Luka just asked me out, properly, and I _know_ I should say yes but no matter what I do I just can’t see him in the same way I did… _him_ … but now _he’s_ dating _her_ and I’m not even sure which one I’m jealous of and I don’t know what to do-” 

A part of that was filed away for later, but Alya couldn’t let Marinette get into a spiral over this right now. Already, the zombie-like stillness in her expression was returning. “Marinette.” 

“-and poor Luka’s been so gentle and kind and understanding and patient and I owe him an answer one way or the other but-” 

“ _Marinette._ Look, any other time I’d be happy to help you work out your boy problems, but I really need to talk to you. About… Lila.” 

The moment Alya said that name, the remaining spark in Marinette’s eyes went out. Her face was utterly lifeless as she responded, “What about her?” 

“You were right. She’s been lying this whole time.” 

The spark flared back into existence, stronger and brighter by the second. Marinette looked at Alya like a person seeing the sunrise for the first time. “You…” 

“Yeah. She, uh.” Shit. She couldn’t fully explain. Not how she found out, or how she was so certain it was magical. “She said something that I _knew_ couldn’t be true, and. It all just came tumbling down. It wasn’t natural, girl. Like, akuma territory not-natural, but without the akuma.” 

Marinette didn’t press, thankfully. She didn’t say anything at all, so Alya picked up the slack. “I’m sorry. You tried to tell me, but-” 

“No,” Marinette interrupted. She stood and pulled Alya upright with her. “No. Not your fault. You… you were the only one who didn’t outright turn on me when she got me expelled. You tried so hard for me, even though you thought I was just jealous…” 

“I didn’t. Not then. I told you. I knew you hadn’t done what she said, no version of Marinette would hurt someone over a boy. Temporarily steal phones, yes. Babble incomprehensibly, yes.” She poked Marinette in the side. “But push someone down the stairs? Never. I just… don’t understand.” 

“Al?” Guilt addressed, anger was starting to seep through in her voice, and Marinette had picked up on it. 

“Why didn’t you _say something_? You actually know Jagged Stone! And Clara Nightingale! Two people Lila claims to have in her pocket, you have in yours. You could have ended this charade months ago! Irrefutable evidence works! If you managed to see through her, you must know that! Why would you leave me- all of us- in the dark?” 

Marinette was refusing to meet her eyes now. “I didn’t want to get her akumatized again. It was better to just let her be.” 

Alya recoiled, those words a blade through her heart. That stung. That really stung, and by the look on her best friend’s face, Marinette didn’t understand why. 

Deep breath in, deep breath out. “Marinette. Do you remember what I told you when we met? What I said that made you finally stand up to Chloé?” 

“Of course I do!” 

“Say it to me.” Alya crossed her arms. 

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing!” 

She shook her head. “But you don’t _believe_ it.” 

“I… Yes, of course I…” 

Alya’s hand moved to find Marinette’s. Once she did, she gave it a squeeze and didn’t let go. “You mean so much to me, girl, you know that? I was new here, that first day. I had no one, and not only were you willing to befriend the weirdo who wouldn’t shut up about superheroes, you _believed_ in what I said. You let me inspire you, and you inspire me too. You always have. I know you’re scared of akumas. Don’t think I haven’t noticed you running to hide whenever one shows up, even if it’s nowhere near us. But you’ve been working past it, even taking charge sometimes in your own way! Darkblade, Syren, Captain Hardrock. I remember those too. I liked to think I was part of the reason for that. A part of you, as much as you’re a part of me.” 

Tears were beginning to streak down her best friend’s face again. Alya plowed ahead. “I can’t do much to help Ladybug-” God, she wanted _so badly_ to tell Marinette about Rena Rouge, but she couldn’t endanger her. Not now, not ever. “-but I can’t do nothing. The Ladyblog lets me show people, more directly than any news channel ever will, that Ladybug and Chat Noir and everyone else are fighting for us. That they’re _real people_ , brave and determined and wonderful, but in need of our support and understanding, too. Of course akuma-chasing is scary, I’ve probably died more times than anyone else in Paris, but I. Can’t. Do. Nothing.” 

Finally, Alya’s voice broke. “I just. I just thought that. You believed it too. I feel like I’ve failed you-” 

“You haven’t failed!” The fiery outburst took Alya by surprise. Behind the cloud of tears- both hers and Marinette’s- she could see traces of steel in her friend’s gaze. It was oddly familiar, though Alya couldn’t quite place it. “Alya. You’re right. I should have done something. I… I was scared. Volpina was… a lot. I didn’t want to- I mean, I didn’t want Ladybug and Chat Noir to have to do that all over again.” 

_Oh._ “That illusion of Adrien. On the Tower. That was awful for everyone, watching that not knowing if it was real or not, but for you… Because it was _him_ …” 

“Y-yeah.” 

Alya yanked an unresisting Marinette into a hug, and the girl buried her face in Alya’s shoulder. She started to sob again as Alya held her. 

“It’s been _awful_. She’s been so cruel and controlling and _all over_ Adrien and if I do anything either I’ll get akumatized when she turns everyone against me again or she’ll get akumatized and… Alya, Ladybug and Chat Noir can’t let civilians die like _that_. Even when they know it might be fake, even when countless people have died and been brought back… They can’t take the risk! I know you do your best, but so many still expect them to be perfect, and if that façade drops… ugh, it’s all so much!” 

Oh, Alya knew. She knew better than Marinette could ever guess, the pressure of perfection, a whole city demanding that you not just do your best but be _seen_ doing your best. And Alya was just a backup hero. She’d only worn the mask a couple dozen times. How bad must it be for Ladybug and Chat Noir? Especially the former, who had to do it all while keeping herself safe to cast the Cure after the fight? Who had to treat everyone as a priority when, practically, she herself was the one that mattered most? 

Alya’s raging crush on Ladybug didn’t mean that she envied her. That kind of pressure would break anyone, superhero or no. 

“It’s okay, Marinette. You can let it out.” Alya quickly scanned their surroundings, just in case, but it looked like her theory was correct. “Papillon wouldn’t dare akumatize us over this, because this bullshit is _his fault._ We’d break his pasty ass.” 

That coaxed a laugh out of Marinette in the midst of her crying. Alya held her until the tears finally stopped, and then a bit longer. Finally, she let go and the two girls sat down on Marinette’s bedroom floor. They leaned against each other in silence for a long time before Alya shifted to face her. 

“What do we do now? I hate to say it, but I don’t think we can take down Lila on our own. She may not have a Miraculous, but she sure as hell isn’t your average liar. Confronting her directly will just backfire on us. You were right about that, at least. We’ll need Ladybug’s help.” 

Marinette nodded, the renewed determination in her bright blue eyes sending a shiver down Alya’s spine. “How are you going to get her attention without tipping off Lila?” 

“You know, I’ve never needed to try. Every time I have a message for Ladybug, she shows up. She must have a sense for these things.” Alya shrugged. 

“I guess she must,” said Marinette softly. 

“No reason to expect that to change now. If I don’t hear from her in a couple days, I’ll think of something. In the meantime, we can keep each other sane as the only two in the class who see through her lies. And Marinette? I’m sorry. For what I said.” 

Marinette gave her a tired smile. “No. You were right. I’d forgotten what you taught me that first day. And… it’s three. Adrien knows. I don’t know how, but he figured it out the day Lila showed up. He just said she wasn’t harming anyone, so…” 

Alya stared, openmouthed. It took her several tries to speak, and when she did, her voice was filled with a rage that she’d only heard in the footage of Lady Wifi. “He _knew?_ Oh, hell no. Girl, wait right here. And, uh, watch out for butterflies. Papillon isn’t my target anymore.” 

“Alya, no-” Marinette started, eyes wide and nervous as Alya climbed to her feet. 

_“Alya yes.”_

  


There were times when Alya really wondered what Marinette saw in this idiot. Now more than ever. That girl deserved to have way more self-respect than she did. 

How dare Agreste leave his “friend” out to dry like that? It didn’t even make sense. She could understand Adrien wanting to avoid conflict. Nino had shared bits and pieces of Adrien’s home life, and it didn’t seem like the boy had ever had much success standing up for himself. Appeasement must be all he knew how to do. But this? This was something else entirely. He could have at least been there for Marinette. 

Alya should have been there for her, too, but she had still been under Lila’s spell. What the fuck could Adrien’s excuse possibly be? Well, she was about to find out. 

“You.” 

Adrien, having just re-entered the school, started at her tone. “Alya?” 

“With me. Now.” 

He followed without argument. Wow. This boy must have a backbone made of rubber. The moment they were out of sight, sequestered away in the empty art room, she whirled around, grabbed him by the front of his stupid designer shirt, and slammed him against the wall. 

“You knew what Lila was doing. This whole goddamn time. And you did nothing. What the fuck is wrong with you?” 

“Lila wasn’t hurting anyone-” 

_“She was hurting Marinette,”_ snarled Alya. Some rational part of her was surprised she hadn’t been akumatized. Right now, she wasn’t sure who she’d go for first as a supervillain; the liar herself, or her pet enabler. 

“-at first! At first, Alya! You didn’t let me finish! I know, okay? Why do you think Lila got Marinette expelled, and then immediately turned around and got her back in? I made her!” 

Wait, what? Alya released him, and he slumped back against the wall. “You did what now?” 

Meekly, Adrien explained the deal he’d made. Implicitly, before that horrible day, and explicitly, after it. He’d been using himself as a distraction almost since the beginning. Drawing fire for Marinette, sacrificing himself, like Chat Noir did so often for Ladybug. And he hadn’t said anything, not wanting anyone to worry about him. 

Marinette’s words ran through Alya’s mind, and she checked them against her memories. While she hadn’t paid nearly as much attention to either Lila or Adrien… that bitch really had been _all over him_ for months now. Alya knew Adrien didn’t like being touched unless he completely trusted the other person. The first time Nino had clapped him on the back unexpectedly, he’d nearly fled the room. Chloé was one thing; as despicable as she could be, she had been Adrien’s only friend for a long time. But Lila? Adrien clearly disliked Lila, but had let her _do_ that to him, just to keep her from bothering his friend, and now had signed up to deal with an even worse version of it at his goddamn job to protect Marinette. 

Alya was getting a headache. If in the next hour Nino did something to give her this kind of emotional whiplash, she’d shatter on the spot. Her heart was already in pieces, for Adrien as well as Marinette now. These _idiots._

And Adrien still pretended that he considered Marinette “just a friend.” Ugh. Right after she was done crucifying Lila she was going to lock these two in the janitor’s closet until they made out, Kagami or no Kagami. Hell, throw her in the closet with them. By the sound of it, Marinette wouldn’t mind much. 

First things first. “Can I hug you?” 

Adrien looked taken aback, but softened. “Yeah.” 

Alya threw her arms around him, and he tentatively did the same. “You’re a moron, Agreste, but you’re a good guy. You don’t deserve to have to put up with this. I shouldn’t have yelled and assumed you didn’t care.” 

Then she pulled away and slapped him in the face. Not hard, but enough to get her point across. “You were still wrong, Adrien. Lila was harming someone right from the beginning. She was harming _you._ And you matter too.” 

The last of Alya’s rage petered out. “Sorry, wasn’t going to ask your permission for that one.” 

Adrien rubbed his cheek. “Eh. I’d have given it.” 

“Yeah, that’s kinda part of the problem. But we’ll deal with your terminally low self-esteem later. Think you’re up to helping us trap a fox?” 

The boy nodded. “It won’t be easy. We might need a miracle.” 

They exchanged a meaningful glance. So he, too, knew- or at least suspected- that Lila Rossi’s manipulation skills weren’t wholly mundane. Good. That would save Alya some convincing. 

“Leave that to me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is the first bit of narrative, and I do mean the _first_ , I’ve ever written without having a solid idea of what the climax of the story is going to look like. I still don’t, as of typing this note, but if you’re reading this, it means I’ve figured it out, because there’s no way in hell this is going up until I have. That’s just how I roll. I don’t commit to things until they’re complete enough in my head that God herself would have to strike me down to stop me from finishing them.


	2. Chapter 2

Sure enough, Ladybug showed up at Alya’s window the next evening. Alya rushed over and opened it, but the superhero didn’t enter, instead perching on the windowsill in a manner more expected of her partner. 

Alya opened her mouth to interrogate her, unable to resist the temptation to get to the bottom of how Ladybug always knew when she wanted to talk, but those words died in her throat when she saw what Ladybug was holding. “There’s an akuma?” 

“No.” Alya couldn’t manage to take her eyes off the box in which she knew the Fox Miraculous rested. Currently inactive, but claimed. By her, months ago, on the day her little sisters were akumatized. She was concentrating on not getting her hopes up about what her idol might be about to say, and as such, almost missed it. 

“Alya Césaire. A great deal has changed since you last held the power of illusion, and I believe that now is the time for you to retain that power permanently. The Fox Miraculous is yours, to wield and to guard. I know you will use it for the greater good, and I will only ask that you return it to me in the event that your identity is exposed to someone we cannot trust. Do you accept? Think carefully-” 

_“Yes,”_ Alya breathed. “I… don’t know what else to say, Ladybug.” _I love you? Marry me? No, bad Alya. Stop that._ “Yes. I accept.” 

Ladybug smiled, and Alya wasted no time in claiming her prize. After a brief light show, Trixx- her companion, now- shot her a toothy grin. “Hey there, kit. We’ll catch up later. You and Madame Guardian have a lot to discuss, I hear.” 

_“Madame Guardian?”_

Ladybug facepalmed. “Trixx, I asked you not to call me that.” 

“But you didn’t order me, and now it’s too late, Madame Guardian!” They sped off, darting around Alya’s room at random. 

Oh, she and Trixx were going to get along great. Raising an eyebrow at the flustered hero still perched in her window, Alya said, “So… Madame Guardian, is it now? Should I update the Ladyblog with your new title? Wait. Oh, I get it! I was right! The symbol! That temple in Tibet! They appointed you, didn’t they! Ha- what? What is it?” 

Ladybug had gone pale. “You remember that?” 

“Remember what?” 

“The temple, Alya!” 

“Um.” This is not how Alya expected this conversation to go. Ladybug was staring at her like she was mad. “Should I not? Kind of hard to forget the time when the Cure reached halfway across the world and two hundred years into the past.” 

“Alya. When Chat Noir and I woke up the day after fighting that blue sentimonster, we were the only ones who still knew about the temple the Cure restored. I mean, it’s probably for the best, who knows what Papillon would have done, but look.” She pulled out her yo-yo and- inexplicably, her hands moving too fast for Alya to track- brought up a search engine and entered a few terms that should have, by all rights, found images and news reports of the magically reappearing monastery. 

“Wow.” 

“Yeah, even your article was gone. At first we thought we’d hallucinated the whole thing-” 

“No, I mean. _Zero_ results? What a piss poor cover-up. Nothing gets zero results anymore. That’s the most overtly suspicious thing I think I’ve ever seen.” Trixx, currently investigating Alya’s closet, let out a cackle at her words. 

“…You know, that’s a good point. You really are a perfect fit for the Fox. But that doesn’t answer how you weren’t affected by whatever wiped everyone else’s memory.” 

“It might. Let’s cut to the chase: besides giving me my Miraculous permanently, _which oh my god thank you so much I’m trying not to scream girl you don’t understand,_ you’re here about the Lila situation?” 

Ladybug nodded. 

“I think there was a reason I was able to break her spell like that, it wasn’t just because she fucked up…” 

  


It took a while, and a hefty amount of reassurance that Alya still couldn’t pin down her identity, but eventually Ladybug was caught up with Alya’s awareness of and mild resistance to glamours. Miraculous in origin or otherwise. “Your two are the strongest of the set, right? It took a lot just to get me to see Nino, and it would make sense that-” 

She stopped midsentence. “Wait, hang on. Duh. Trixx, these are your powers. Am I right?” 

“More or less,” the kwami called. “But I hope you know that I wouldn’t have just told you these things if you’d _asked_ , kit. That’s no fun. And not at all how a good Fox works.” 

Alya shrugged. “There you have it.” 

Ladybug was still nervously chewing on her lip, which was, in Alya’s view, distractingly cute. “Are you _certain?_ Now that you’re a permanent holder, things might change. There’s a lot I don’t know about the Miraculous, Alya. Focus on me.” She swallowed, pulling up a guarded expression. “On my face. On everything you know about me. You know me- Ladybug, that is- better than anyone else save Chat Noir. I need to know the limits of your abilities, because I can’t have you figuring me out. I’m sorry. I’ll… I’ll give you the Bee instead, like I almost did that one time, if you think you might be able to see through me with the Fox.” 

Oof. It was the hardest thing Alya had ever done, knowing that if she succeeded she would lose the precious gift she’d just received. But Ladybug was trusting her, so she did as she was asked. Alya stared at the hero directly, trying for the first time in months to connect the dots that the fuzziness in her head kept disconnecting. She hacked away at the mental fog, pushing herself to come up with something, anything, running through all the mysteries surrounding Ladybug, every irregularity, anything that might lead her to the superhero’s identity or any detail about her at all… 

For a moment, she thought she felt the foxtail necklace grow warm around her neck, and something clicked. An answer to the question she’d meant to ask first thing. 

“Marinette.” 

Ladybug fell off the windowsill. 

“Whoa!” Alya caught her and dragged the much smaller girl into the room properly. The window thing couldn’t have been comfortable anyway, and it looked like they were going to be here for a while yet. “What, is her name like a curse that invokes clumsiness?” 

Shakily, the hero closed the window before turning back to Alya. “What- what about Marinette?” There was a kind of panic in her voice that Alya had never heard from her before… 

Oh my god. _Oh my god._ “You know Marinette! That’s how you always know when I want to talk, she just tells you when I tell her. And based on your reaction just now…” Alya narrowed her eyes. “I have good news and bad news for you, Bug. The good news is that I think Marinette just realized she isn’t straight, so you have a chance. The bad news is that she’s a disaster, you’re a superhero, she’s already crushing on two other people, and finally, I’m sworn to be her wingwoman, not yours. Sorry.” 

Ladybug’s sputtering and rapidly reddening cheeks only proved Alya right. Besides, she could hear Trixx laughing again. The kwami must be so proud of her for figuring all this out. 

Alya’s feeling of triumph faded when she remembered what this might mean. “Um. Do I need to give this back…?” 

“N- no! Alya, you’re… way off. Way off. I swear.” 

“Oh sure, girl. Whatever you say.” She wasn’t going to let her relief show. “But yeah, uh. I’m pretty sure your identity is safe from me, if your crushes aren’t. You know, I _could_ make an exception to try to get my two favorite girls together…” 

“Oh, look at that, Alya! It’s time to talk about _literally anything else._ Like what we’re going to do about Lila.” 

“If you and Marinette ever start dating, I’m telling her you once said you’d rather talk about Lila Rossi than her.” 

“Nope. That’s it. Give me back your Miraculous, Césaire. I can’t deal with you.” 

Ladybug maintained an icy stare for a total of four seconds before both girls cracked up. Some part of Alya was in full gay panic mode; laughing and joking with Ladybug was the easiest thing in the world. It felt _right._ And, well. If Marinette had stolen Ladybug’s heart… maybe Alya could steal it from her in turn. Or they could share. That would be fine too. 

“Okay, but seriously. Plan time, Bug?” 

“Plan time.” 

  


There were still a number of unknowns, and they weren’t ready to determine how the final blow would be struck to the girl Alya now acknowledged as the third most dangerous person in Paris, but by the end of the hour Alya and Ladybug both had come up with a few tasks to undertake in preparation. They toyed with the idea of assigning some to Marinette, too, but Ladybug had said she wanted to try to leave her out of it where possible. Alya thought that was sweet. As for Adrien, they agreed it was best to keep him in reserve, so to speak; the poor boy had to deal with Lila enough as it was. 

Meanwhile, Ladybug had been growing increasingly agitated. She was glancing at the time on Alya’s computer with mounting frequency. Finally, after the third time in the same minute, Alya made a point of following her gaze and then looking back at her. “Got somewhere to be, Ladybug?” 

“Yes, in a bit.” 

“You don’t seem too happy about it. Everything alright?” 

Ladybug let out a sigh. “You know what? My kwami doesn’t want me sharing this, but… just this once, what she doesn’t know won’t kill her. Nor will anything else, for that matter.” 

Trixx zipped over and settled on Alya’s shoulder, the tip of their tail curling. “Oh? One of Tikki’s bugs daring to disobey her? This should be interesting.” 

“…Alya, mind giving us some privacy?” 

“What? _Oh._ Trixx, transform me!” The kwami’s yelp of protest was cut off by the flash of orange as Alya Césaire became Rena Rouge. 

Rena looked around, taking in her surroundings with her enhanced senses. It felt weird to be in her own room as a superhero. “Done. So what’s up?” 

“Chat Noir and I are going to reveal our identities to each other. Tonight.” 

Rena’s brain caught fire. First, that confirmed at last that this whole time they hadn’t known, something she’d never been able to get Ladybug to clarify. (And Chat Noir gave different answers every time.) Second, that meant that there might just be a repeat of Oblivio. Er… what happened after Oblivio, rather. Was it weird that being akumatized again was not the most important thing that had happened to Alya that day? When talking about it, she often forgot that the villain had even been her and Nino at all. 

Anyway, _hell fucking yes._ Learning that Ladybug liked girls too hadn’t diminished Rena’s insistence that the duo would be unbearably cute together. They already were, really. Rena didn’t say that, though, and instead simply asked, “Why?” 

“Remember what Trixx called me?” 

Rena snorted. “How could I forget? _Madame Guardian._ ” 

“You weren’t wrong about there being an order of guardians in charge of the Miraculous. Someone else picked me and Chat Noir. I picked all of you, but only with his permission and approval. But he’s… gone now. It’s just me. And that means…” 

Oh. “That means no one knows Chat Noir’s identity except him.” 

A slow nod from Ladybug. “If something happens to him, I’ll have no way to know or help. And as the newest Guardian, it’s my job to know anyway.” 

“But why does he need to know yours?” 

“Not you too,” grumbled Ladybug, sounding more like a moody teenager than the savior of Paris. “My kwami doesn’t want me to, either, but Chat Noir and I promised each other. I’ve had to break too many promises to maintain this double life, and I hate it. I’m _not_ breaking this one, no matter what Tikki says.” 

“But what if-” 

“Alya. Rena. Believe me, I know the risks, and I’d prefer to put it off until Lila is dealt with, but my kwami has been pestering me nonstop about it for weeks now. She gave me a deadline of midnight tonight to tell him, or she’d do it herself. They’re not supposed to be able to do that, but Tikki’s clever. She’d find a way.” 

Now it was Rena’s turn to look at the time. Ladybug only had a couple hours left. “Procrastinating, aren’t you? Didn’t know you had it in you, girl.” 

That earned her a mirthless laugh. “You don’t know the half of it, Rena. But there’s another reason I waited. I… have reason to believe… that there’s a chance us revealing ourselves could go poorly. That’s part of the reason I’m giving you your Miraculous to keep now, so we have a chance if the worst happens. _Please_ don’t ask me what the worst is.” She shuddered and hugged herself. Rena had never seen the bold superhero look so small, so withdrawn, and the shock burned her curiosity away. 

“I won’t. I believe you.” 

“Thanks, Rena.” She stood up. “I should get going. If you want to go for a patrol on your own, please wait until after ours is done at midnight. Actually, I’ll call you then. Just so you know everything worked out fine and you don’t need to leap in flute swinging.” 

“Trixx, detransform me.” Alya went to open the window for Ladybug. “Got it. This, uh. This was nice, Bug. Thanks.” _God dammit Césaire you can flirt better than that._ “I wouldn’t mind you dropping by again. Uh, just to talk. About anything.” _Fuck, apparently not._

Ladybug paused at the threshold. “I… might.” _Oh my god yes._ “Bye, Alya.” She turned to go. 

“Wait, one last thing!” 

“Yes?” 

“Since you know Marinette… please keep an eye on her while we handle Lila? It’s been hard on her. This isn’t me trying to set you two up, I swear. She’s the strongest person I know besides- actually. Sorry, Ladybug, but she _is_ the strongest person I know. I totally believe in you, girl, but the day Marinette Dupain-Cheng gets akumatized is the day you lose.” 

The hero wasn’t facing her anymore, but the softness in her voice spoke for itself. Ladybug might not have accepted her feelings, yet it was unmistakably love that filled every syllable. “You know, I think you might just be right about that, Alya.” 

And then she was gone, swinging away into the Parisian night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m obsessive about keeping the superhero vs. civilian names consistent, at least at this stage of their story. Names obviously have some power in this universe. You know how all akumas discard their old names and angrily correct anyone who uses them? Gabriel seems to use the names he bestows like a contract, classical fae style. Furthermore, Chloé rejected an akuma by repeatedly reaffirming her other identities and denying the one being offered. And until the heroes grow more comfortable with themselves, they would likely feel compelled to follow the same logic of keeping their identities separate even in their own heads. Thirteen-year-old Marinette, in the first few months of canon, sees Ladybug as almost an entirely different person. Seventeen-year-old Marinette alternates which name she internally uses for herself when in the mask. Twenty-year-old Marinette views transforming like putting on an outfit. Thirty-year-old Marinette goes to ask Tikki something and is alarmed when the kwami isn't there only to remember that she forgot to detransform when she got home an hour ago.


	3. Chapter 3

Thankfully, whatever Ladybug was afraid of didn’t happen. When Alya transformed at the stroke of midnight, she received a brief message via her flute. She’d never noticed the collapsible portion that revealed a screen before, though in all previous outings as Rena she’d never strayed far from Ladybug’s side, so there’d never been a need for it. 

**Ladybug:** All good. Enjoy your patrol, Rena. Don’t beat anyone up unless they really deserve it. Bug out. 

Rena did just that, bounding from building to building, taking in the sights. She spooked more than one late night wanderer; the people of Paris may have gotten used to the sound and sight of Ladybug’s yo-yo and Chat Noir’s staff aiding their users in traversing the city at all hours, but a bright orange hero who leapt on all fours from rooftop to rooftop caused more than one cry of “akuma” before Rena got close enough to be recognized. No doubt, the news that Rena Rouge was now operating outside of emergencies would be everywhere by the morning. 

It was a shame the Ladyblog couldn’t be the one to break the story. Rena had circumvented such issues before using Mirage, casting an illusion of her civilian self doing the interview while simultaneously shrouding the telltale flashing of her necklace, but arranging for Alya Césaire to capture Rena Rouge on camera was too risky without a great deal of preparation and backup. 

Paris was quiet, which was a relief. Rena was in an excellent mood after Ladybug’s visit, she didn’t want to spoil it by having to deal with some moronic lowlifes. The couple of times when she spotted someone she deemed suspicious- something in her seemed to lock onto them immediately, perhaps another one of Trixx’s lesser powers- all it took was perching on a balcony above and a quiet inquiry as to their plans on this lovely evening to send them scurrying away. The glint of her slightly elongated canines in the streetlights probably helped with that. She might have purposely positioned herself to ensure it was the first thing her prey would see. 

But that had been last night. Now, she had to attend to the first of the tasks Ladybug had assigned her. This one didn’t actually have anything to do with Lila. Not directly. It was just to ease Ladybug’s mind. 

“Do you think that the order of guardians has, like, a secret base?” 

“What?” Nino had been spacing out listening to his music, but she watched him visibly change settings to Listening To Alya Theorize Mode. 

Alya repeated herself, shifting to lean on him. As always, her boyfriend made for a very comfortable pillow. “They’ve gotta be somewhere. Unless there’s just, like, one guy, and he's like a junior historian at the Louvre or something before heading home to guard the secrets of the Miraculous.” 

Nino guffawed. “I don’t think Alix’s bro is the kind of dude who knows how to keep secrets. Besides, their base is definitely in the sewers. Or the catacombs. Gotta be one of the two. Oh snap, what if their, like, conclave or whatever and Papillon’s lair are right next to each other and neither realize it? That’d be hilarious.” 

So that answered that question. Nino hadn’t retained the memory of the temple, which means that Papillon hadn’t. To the best of their ability to discern, at any rate. Alya must have only shrugged off whatever spell had been cast because of the powers of the Fox in particular. Or maybe she hadn’t been completely unaffected? It wasn’t like she’d noticed that no one was talking about it anymore, or that her article was gone. She’d worked hard on it, too. How dare the monks or whatever censor her journalism. Bastards. 

She and Nino playfully bounced back increasingly absurd theories as they waited for class to start. By the time Marinette walked in, seconds before the bell as usual, they’d decided that Papillon just had a room in his otherwise normal house chock full of butterflies, and the man sat there all day scanning the city for, as Nino put it, “bad vibes.” 

That was, of course, ridiculous. But not as ridiculous as Adrien entering at Marinette’s side, the two holding what seemed to be a fairly normal if slightly tense conversation. No stuttering. No hesitation. No Marinette tripping over her own feet. 

Holy shit. While everyone was stunned into silence, causing Adrien and Marinette to flush once they realized what had happened, Alya disobeyed Ladybug’s directive to do nothing unusual regarding Lila and quickly glanced at the girl in the back row. Sure enough, outwardly she wore a bemused expression, but there was a cold rage lurking somewhere in her eyes. Yikes. Alya turned back before Lila spotted her. Hopefully there would be no repeat of Volpina today or ever, but if there was, Alya was going to beat her senseless with both their flutes. 

Even Mlle. Bustier showed some surprise before smiling and motioning for the two latecomers to take their seats. When Marinette did, Nino moving down a row to his usual place, she was met with a high five from Alya. Out of the corner of her eye, the latter spotted Adrien accepting an equally hype fist bump from Nino. 

“Good work, girl! I’m proud of you.” 

“All we did- all we did was talk!” Okay, so the stutter wasn’t totally gone, though Marinette had never stuttered talking to _her_ before. That was odd. Maybe Alya had been looking in the wrong place for a possible akuma… 

No, this was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, sure enough. It was just a Marinette Dupain-Cheng that had somehow, miraculously, learned to treat Adrien Agreste like a normal person. Sure, there was a touch of red on her cheeks and the occasional garbled speech as she talked to Alya that day, but unless Alya was imagining it, Adrien was suffering from the same affliction as he chatted with Nino. _Excellent._ She only hoped they didn’t hurt Kagami. Alya had only met her a few times, and had been obligated to dislike her at first, but Marinette released her from that sworn duty after they’d made peace. If those three turned into some garbage love triangle when they clearly all liked each other, Alya was going to go through with her lock-them-in-a-closet plan even if she had to take out the fencer girl with a tranquilizer dart first to avoid getting stabbed. 

What infuriated Alya is that Marinette refused to explain how she’d done it, only saying “I realized he’s actually just a dork.” 

“Girl. I’ve told you that before. In those words.” Alya shook her head. All these months being Marinette’s wingwoman, and a pretty good one if she did say so herself, and this is the thanks she gets? Unbelievable. “I _will_ get the full story out of one of you one day.” 

“I'm sure you will,” said Marinette, winking at Alya and confusing her for a number of reasons not all of which she quite understood. “But not today.” 

  


As planned, Ladybug and Rena Rouge met up not long after classes let out, and the veteran hero showed the newcomer the usual patrol route she and Chat Noir took. “But you’re welcome to find your own if you choose to wander solo. Up to you.” 

Neither had any plans for the evening. Well, Rena had a few assignments, but they could wait. Chatting with her crush took precedence. Nino would certainly agree. Once she was finally able to tell him about this, he’d probably be most annoyed that she hadn’t already done her best to set him up with _his_ crush. They’d had more than one argument about which of them was more likely to successfully seduce their target first. 

Rena was lucky enough to have a head start. But right now, her mind was (mostly) on Ladybug’s other potential relationship. “Can’t believe I’m living in a world post-Ladynoir reveal. I feel like something in the air should be different, you know? But nope,” she gestured at the tourists milling around a couple stories below them, those who spotted the pair of heroes excitedly snapping a photo. “Everything’s… normal. Like yeah, you two didn’t just immediately start making out at the base of the Tower in full view of everyone, but still. Maybe later?” 

Instead of fervently denying any more than platonic affection for her partner, Ladybug giggled. “Want to know something funny, Rena? I don’t think me telling you this will matter, identity-wise. Under duress, my kwami admitted that there’s basically nothing I could do short of telling you my name or detransforming that would break the enchantment. The Ladybug and Black Cat are apparently strong enough to override the Fox entirely. Uh, sorry?” 

“Pffft. Probably for the best, girl. Yeah, spill.” 

Ladybug looked left and right before lowering her voice. “We already knew each other.” 

_“Oh my god.”_

“No, no, it gets worse. So much worse! I’ve had a crush on him- his civilian self- forever, but whenever I tried to talk to him, I couldn’t get any words out. I’d fumble my speech, my thoughts. I’d even just trip sometimes, over nothing.” Rena started cackling, thinking of _the_ Ladybug acting like her mess of a best friend. “Turns out at least part of it was our glamours clashing. I still like him, and we all know how the damn cat feels about me, but I can actually talk to him now. Mostly. Like, without sounding totally crazy. Besides, we both did plenty of that last night, we got it out of our systems. But all this time, all these months of trying to coach myself through confessing to him only to mess it up when my brain went haywire at the last second, and half of it was just the magic working overtime to stop me from recognizing my freaking _chaton_.” 

Rena was doubled over, howling with laughter. There were some yips mixed in there, too; with what executive function she had left, she made a note to nag on Trixx for that later. She finally managed to choke out, “And what about him?” 

“Oh, he did the opposite. Flirting smooth as you like as Chat Noir, stubbornly treating me as just another friend as a civilian even though somewhere in the back of his head he knew he liked me. Or so he says. Meanwhile, he claims that whenever he ran into _me_ , this me, without the mask on his face, he forgot how to talk. Or breathe. Usually both. I didn’t notice, because when that happened, I was doing the same.” 

“I despise this. I despise all of this. You’re both the worst and you’re totally perfect for each other.” Gradually, Rena’s chuckling faded. “So I take it we’re in the clear? With whatever bad thing you thought might happen?” 

A storm cloud passed briefly over Ladybug’s sunny disposition. “Not exactly. We’re not together. And we won’t be in the suits, not publicly. At least until Papillon is gone. And not out of them. Not just yet, but maybe soon. There’s, uh. A few complications to work out.” 

“Complications, huh? Is one of them named Marinette Dupain-Cheng? You know, there’s a pretty simple solution to that problem. I’ll set up my best friend with as many superheroes as she wants, long as no one minds and you keep her safe. It’s what she deserves.” Seeing an opportunity, Rena steeled her nerves, an easier task while transformed. True, Ladybug had just said she couldn’t date someone in the mask. That was, until Papillon was gone. Rena could be patient. “Or maybe another complication is… _Alya Césaire?_ I can’t believe it, after all this time _I’m_ the one stopping civilian Ladynoir from happening at last. Once again, there’s an easy fix here…” 

Ladybug punched her in the shoulder. “Shut it, Fox. Come on, we have to meet up with Chat in a few minutes. Race you to the Tower?” Without waiting for a response, she whipped out her yo-yo and swung away. 

Rena took a flying leap after her, yelling, “That wasn’t a denial, Bug!” 

  


The more experienced hero won the race, of course. Rena was more agile, but she couldn’t cover whole city blocks with the aid of her weapon. She’d used the flute for a number of unexpected nonmagical tasks in the past, often as part of one of Ladybug’s bizarre Charms, but it was so far proving useless in helping her move any faster. 

Rena was panting- _panting_ , being a permanent holder really was causing changes faster than she’d have liked, or maybe she was only now noticing- by the time she hauled herself onto the beam on which Ladybug and Chat Noir were seated. 

“There you are,” drawled Chat. “I didn’t know foxes were so slow! We were going to have to get started without you.” 

Rena gave the offending hero a light bop on the head with her flute, rolling her eyes as he flopped back dramatically as if slain by the blow before quickly righting himself. “Good to see you too. By the way, do you know who I am, kittycat?” 

“Yeah. I, uh-” 

“I told him,” interrupted Ladybug. “Uh, sorry, Rena. Hope that’s okay.” 

Rena smelled a lie. Perhaps literally? She couldn’t tell, and she knew asking Trixx was useless. She’d have to do some investigating on that front. At any rate, magical lie detection or no, Ladybug had stepped in rather quickly there, and Chat Noir had an odd expression on his face… 

Ugh. There it was again. The stupid itch in her head, stronger as Rena Rouge than as Alya Césaire. But she knew she wouldn’t be able to put her finger on what that tiny attempt at deception might mean. It wasn’t worth trying, and besides, Ladybug trusted her not to. She let it go. “Nah, it’s fine. This just means I can pester you for interviews in the suit too.” 

“Oh _purrlease_ no, spare me.” His tail curled in amusement. 

“Come on. You love talking about yourself.” 

“Says the girl who abused the ancient power of illusion to chat herself up on camera and posted it on the Internet. More than once.” 

“Okay, break it up you two,” said Ladybug before Rena could fire back. Damn, and she had such a good one about the feline hero _chatting_ up Ladybug every day while ignoring the poor girl’s civilian self. “We have things to do.” 

“What, are we _bugging_ you?” said Rena Rouge and Chat Noir in unison, followed by a whoop and a high five over Ladybug’s head. 

Their victim groaned and covered her face with her hands. “I’ve made a terrible mistake.” 

“You love us,” said Chat Noir, grinning wickedly. 

“No I don’t.” 

“Yes you do. You’ve had a crush on me since-” Ladybug slapped a hand over Chat Noir’s mouth. He just kept talking while muffled until she finally relented some thirty seconds later. “-and don’t think I haven’t seen the way you look at _her_.” 

“Me? Or has Ladybug shared her other crush with you? You know, the very dear friend of mine? I have to warn you- both of you, I remember catching you on her balcony that time, kitty- that she and her longtime paramour may finally have removed their heads from their asses. Your timing is absolutely abysmal, though now I guess you might be able to seduce them as a pair. They’re a _little_ out of your league, but you have my blessing.” 

Holy shit. She’d been joking, but both heroes had gone bright red. Neither would look her in the eye. “You utter and complete disasters. You’re actually considering it. How do you even know they’d be down for that sort of thing? It takes some real maturity and communication, you know, and each of you is terrible with at least one of those things.” 

As one, as if prompted by some signal, the original heroic duo of Paris burst out into laughter. Loud, raucous, enough to scare all the nearby pigeons away and get Mr. Ramier akumatized again if he’d been nearby. Ladybug’s deeply undignified giggling and snorting meshed with Chat Noir’s booming, almost villainous cackle until Rena, despite herself, was chortling too. 

“Alright. Alright, settle down. God, is this how you act all the time when no one’s looking? It’s a miracle Paris has survived this long. In the interest of keeping it that way: Ladybug, have you caught the cat up yet? On our, ahem, faux fox hunt.” 

Only just managing to pull herself together- Chat Noir was still a lost cause- Ladybug replied in the affirmative. “Done. Waiting on your report, secret agent Rena Rouge, our most brilliant investigator.” 

Rena knew she was being teased, but that was right, wasn’t it? Okay, so she’d need to make a fucking chart to fully scope out which of her civilian friends were crushing on which of her superhero friends and vice versa (or maybe it’d be simpler to mark which _weren’t_ ), but she’d figured it out, hadn’t she? She deserved that title. “Carapace doesn’t have any memory of the temple. Trust me, I made sure.” 

Ladybug let out a sigh of relief. “Good. So no sudden evil Miraculous army. Probably. And Alix?” 

“Inconclusive, but probably a negative. You were right that she wouldn’t spill to Lila that I was questioning her stories, but you underestimated how little Alix Kubdel gives a shit about any of this. At least consciously. I think she’d tuned me out by the third celebrity name-drop. Glamour still in place despite me making some very good points. I don’t even think it budged much, I could kind of sense it working against me.” 

It had been a weird feeling, like trying to move through thick mud. But more… conceptually. Okay, Rena hadn’t really figured out how to describe it yet. So sue her, she was a reporter and a journalist, not a storyteller. She preferred dealing with facts and bullet points over florid prose. “So no Alix. I think it’s safe to say that the most reliable way to break Lila’s spell is to trick her into doing it herself.” 

“I was afraid of that. Oh well. Thanks, Rena. I’ll let you know if I think of something else to try on the civilian side of things.” 

“Happy to be of help, Madame Guardian.” 

Chat Noir had quieted down a minute beforehand, but his laughter returned with a vengeance. “Oh my god! My kwami called her that too, it drove her nuts last night. Derailed the whole dramatic scene. I threatened him with cheddar and he threatened to cata- er, to kill me in my sleep.” 

“Cheddar? As in cheese? What does he usually eat?” 

“Camembert.” 

“…Okay. I hate that that tracks, actually. Destruction and the worst rotting garbage imaginable. Trixx wanted jerky, I had to slip out at like 2am to get them some. They said it was the perfect food because it’s lying about being food.” 

“Kwamis, right?” 

It was Ladybug’s turn to call them to attention. “Okay, you two. The next thing I want to try is getting in Lila’s head. Rena, do you think you could manage just letting her see you, around, but not apparently noticing her or doing anything? No using illusions on her, not yet anyway. Don’t be _too_ sneaky, we want her to see you, but not too obvious that she knows for certain that you want her to see you.” 

Rena mulled that over. “Should be doable. Can I ask why?” 

“I’ve got a few plans in the works, but some of them rely on Lila not trusting what she sees anymore. She knows your power. After all, her akumatized form was a knockoff Fox transformation and she’s apparently masquerading as you to others, so… even if we end up doing something else, it can’t hurt to make our enemy a little paranoid.” 

“Oh, that’s _nasty_. I like the way you think, Bug.” 

“Same here,” chimed in Chat. “Sometimes I think you’d make the better Black Cat.” 

Ladybug shuddered. “Maybe, but you’d be a terrible Ladybug. We proved that a while back.” 

“Hey! I did just fine.” 

“It wasn’t your actions, it was the name you chose, _chaton_. Awful. Absolutely awful. Zero out of ten.” 

Rena had undergone a moment best defined as a “crisis” upon remembering the day of Mister Bug… and _Lady Noire_. “I don’t know,” she said. “Maybe you should swap every now and then. For, uh, practice.” 

Both heroes looked at her. Through her, in fact. She flushed under their matching smirks. “Oh come on. Every gay girl in Paris had a heart attack over you in that outfit. You’re lucky this idiot still managed to cast the Cure, or you’d have been accused of mass murder.” 

“I recall,” said Ladybug dryly. “Okay, I think we’re done here. Meeting adjourned. Go scamper about the city or work on the Ladyblog or whatever it is you do when you’re not thinking about me in a skintight leather suit. Same for you, cat. Shoo. It’s a school night, I’m sure we all have work to do.” 

The fox hero let out one last bark of laughter before standing and looking for a lower beam to leap to. However, she looked back up when Chat Noir cleared his throat to find both of them facing her with their fists extended. 

“I know there was no akuma, but still. Milady likes her traditions, and I think we’re well on our way to stopping our resident liar. For luck with your teenage girl stalking.” 

Rena’s face lit up, completely ignoring Chat’s last teasing words. She’d done this before, of course, but getting to do it as a full-fledged permanent member of the team… she’d treasure this memory, possibly more so than the day she’d claimed her Miraculous for the first time. She’d made it. She was a superhero, like she’d always known she would be. 

_“Bien joué!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m like 98% certain that Chat Noir’s tail and ears are just for show in canon. But that’s no fun at all. I do what I want. Or I could say it’s part of the ongoing evolution of his powers. Yeah, let’s go with that.
> 
> Also, I’ve never eaten jerky, and I don’t plan to, but I could not come up with another food more suited to the theme of “this food is inherently lying about its own status as edible food.” Not without borrowing the Ron Swanson skim milk joke, anyway, which I still might do later.


	4. Chapter 4

Rena Rouge would never feel sympathy for Lila Rossi. Nor would Alya Césaire, for that matter. She couldn’t. Maybe that wasn’t very heroic of her, but the girl had crossed too many lines. Maybe if Lila had just been doing it out of a desire for attention rather than power, or if she hadn’t been doing _that_ to Adrien, or if she hadn’t chosen _the best goddamn person in Paris_ as her primary target, there might be some breathing room for a traitorous hint of understanding to slip in. Some chance of redemption, some reason for Rena to not sincerely believe, in her heart of hearts, that the safest solution for the city and maybe the world was for Chat Noir to cataclysm Lila Rossi before she caused one more akuma. Or became one herself. 

The latter option was particularly dangerous now, Rena knew. She and Chat Noir both, apparently more versed in these sorts of narrative pitfalls than Ladybug, had wasted little time in pointing out that if Lila was akumatized over them exposing her, it would be incredibly likely that her abilities would revolve around truth and lies. Not that Volpina or Chameleon again wouldn’t be a deadly threat, but a powerful truth-compelling akuma could spell doom for Ladybug and Chat Noir now that they knew each other’s identities. So they could not, under any circumstances, allow Lila to become akumatized once they exposed her. This meant, of course, they would have to leave her be until they were ready. 

That was not a decision Rena wholly supported for obvious reasons, triumph-of-evil internal edict and all that, but it wasn’t her call or her life most at risk. She wouldn’t push. Rena didn’t know how Ladybug was going to pull this off, but when had anyone known that, ever? Besides, the spotted hero insisted that she’d be able to guard Lila for as long as it took for the butterflies to stop. She implied that she had already done so once, for someone else, but wouldn’t tell Rena when or how. That too was fine. Rena knew that there were some things it was best for Ladybug to keep to herself and her partner. At least for now. 

What sucked is that she wasn’t allowed to tell Nino. He’d found out very quickly that she’d been given her Miraculous permanently, of course. Rena hadn’t even been able to break the news to him in person, it got out too fast. But she couldn’t explain why, or what exactly she was doing that had eaten up all her spare time for the past week, or when he might get his Miraculous permanently. That disappointed him. He liked Wayzz. The two bounced off each other shockingly well. 

More than that, Rena was being forced to do exactly what she’d been upset at Marinette for doing: keeping the people close to her in the dark, under Lila’s spell. She’d been convinced that it was necessary, but it burned, worse and worse as time passed, even though Nino would forgive her in an instant in the end. Like his best friend, her boyfriend only seemed to grow a spine when defending others. Then again, unlike Adrien, Nino was quick to do so, very loud about it, and wouldn’t budge an inch if he thought someone was being mistreated. That was a big part of why Rena had fallen for him, flaws and all. 

She’d make it up to him. Probably by getting him a date with Chat Noir. It would have to be in the suits, to be safe- she briefly giggled at the idea of them having a date _out_ of their suits- but Nino would still be thrilled. She’d brought it up once, and the hero hadn’t seemed wholly opposed to the idea. Rena may as well put her skills as a wingwoman to use, now that her first project was approaching completion. Adrien and Marinette were growing even more sickeningly sweet by the day, and Alya had a plan to deal with the main roadblock. That was scheduled for tomorrow evening. Marinette had started tagging along to Adrien’s fencing practice just to watch, which was precious, and also a convenient opportunity for Alya to touch base with Adrien and Marinette’s mutual “friend.” 

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the blinds of Lila’s window move ever so slightly yet again. Rena didn’t react, just kept staring at the skyline, lounging only barely visible behind a chimney. She stretched, and the tips of her fox ears briefly poked over the top of the brick structure. 

What had she been thinking about again? Rena twirled her flute absentmindedly. Oh, yes. How if Lila wasn’t so utterly and completely terrible, she just might deserve a smidgen of sympathy. 

The girl’s life was as empty as her words. She went to school. She lied. She went home. She probably lied there too. Repeat. Lila never went anywhere or did anything at all, save the rare photoshoot where Rena had to duck out lest she become akumatized over watching her friend be sexually harassed. Adrien had insisted to Alya, when the two had convened and he’d been updated on what Alya had permission to share of Ladybug’s plan, that they shouldn’t rush on his account. 

She’d wanted to slap him again. But she didn’t. She’d just asked if she could, and smiled when he said “no.” The boy was learning. 

Lila didn’t appear to have any close friends, despite being on good terms with so many of the people dangling by her marionette strings. She just. Did nothing. In fact, if it hadn’t been for her being akumatized, Rena would have thought she’d discovered Papillon’s true identity. Okay, true, Papillon was a grown man, but Rena herself had consciously chosen to alter her appearance in the mask just a bit to throw others off in case she was wrong about the glamour. Could someone exercise _total_ control of how they looked while transformed? Hmm. That was unsettling to consider for multiple reasons, so Rena decided that just this once she would let that lead drop. 

Wait. Could a Butterfly wielder akumatize themselves? That was a question for Ladybug, assuming even she knew. Rena certainly hoped they couldn’t, or a decent number of potential Papillon candidates were suddenly back on the list. 

Another twitch by the window. Lila had definitely spotted her. Good. Rena would chill for a few more minutes, then slip away. She’d have to find a new just-barely-insufficient hiding spot later. 

This strategy wasn’t Rena’s favorite way to operate. At the very least, she’d like to plant a few illusions to actively start messing with Lila. Subtle things. Change the color of Lila’s front door a few shades, and then dispel the Mirage the moment Lila looked away. Move a patch of crumbling sidewalk slightly forward so that Lila stepped in it while moving to step over it. Make a crosswalk sign shift prematurely, hopefully getting Lila hit by a car. All these ideas had been shot down by Ladybug. Especially the last one. 

So instead Rena kept herself busy by messing with her flute, which appeared to contain something between a magical smartphone and a supercomputer. She’d made a Twitter for Rena Rouge. She’d deleted said Twitter two days later. She’d somehow gotten Tetris to work, before remembering that she hated Tetris. Once, it had occurred to her to wonder if her weapon could be used as the musical instrument it appeared to be. 

While Rena had ruined a decent hiding spot and alerted Lila to her presence faster than she’d have liked that day, she had learned two things. First, it could. Second, she was terrible at the flute. Trixx assured her that actual skill with the musical instrument wasn’t a factor, but Rena decided to learn anyway. She rather liked the idea of being able to sit on rooftops in the evening and play for as many or as few people as she wanted. Where she was now was far enough away so that the sound wouldn’t carry, so she was running through some basic drills she’d looked up. 

An explosion a couple of kilometers away served to distract her, and she roused herself and was lining up the jump to the next building over in less than a second. Time to run interference as Ladybug and Chat Noir saved the day again. 

Rena knew, instinctively, that Ladybug and Chat Noir were and were always going to be the primary heroes of Paris. No matter if Rena showed up to every akuma battle from here until the next century, it would always be the duo at the forefront of everyone’s minds. Rena understood herself well enough to say there was a foul grain of bitterness about that somewhere in her, but it wasn’t likely to grow, so she ignored it. She’d make a bad Ladybug, that was certain. She’d never be able to just let go and let her powers guide her like that girl did. If that is in fact what she did. Ladybug had just been confused when she’d tried to ask about it. 

And she might be _too good_ of a Black Cat, she considered as she drew closer to the raging conflict. Rena could be a bit rash and hotheaded when it came to dealing justice, she could admit that. Acceptable qualities for a warrior and a relentless defender of the innocent. Bad qualities for anyone looking to be viewed as a hero in the public eye. If it was _her_ in the leather catsuit, and there was no one like Ladybug to keep her grounded, Lila Rossi and probably a few of the world’s more despicable politicians would already be dust in the wind. 

Was that for the best, truly? Rena didn’t know, and because of that, she also knew she wasn’t the best person to make such a call. At last, she reached the outdoor pavilion where her teammates were fighting who Rena guessed, based on the signs scattered about, to be a Jagged Stone cover artist that had been, appropriately, transformed into an even more obnoxiously garish version of the rock star’s akumatized self. Rena tightened her grip on her flute, ready to either change the akuma’s perceived reality with a single word or just hit them really hard in the face. Whichever worked best today. 

  


Slipping away from Marinette at the end of Adrien’s fencing practice wasn’t difficult. The girl was in a bit of a state. She had gotten a lot better, but traces of the classic Marinette panic still bled through at times. And after all, it hadn’t just been Adrien out there showing off on the piste… 

Alya successfully located her target leaving the locker room. “Hey. Kagami, right?” 

The girl looked at her quizzically. Or, she probably did. It was hard to tell. “You know my name, Alya Césaire, as I know yours. We’ve encountered each other many times due to our mutual friends. Instead of pretending that we have not, why not simply state what you intend to talk to me about?” 

Ah. Right. She was… _Kagami_. Alya adjusted her mode of speech, just as she would if Marinette requested it, and simply said, “Adrien and Marinette are on the verge of falling into each other’s arms.” 

“And you wish for me to back off Adrien so that they may do so unhindered?” 

“No! Girl, no.” Kagami’s brow furrowed, and then even more so at Alya’s next words. “I want all three of you to get together.” 

“I do not understand.” 

Oh. Oh fuck, she really didn’t. That would explain why Kagami “I Never Hesitate” Tsurugi had been doing just that. No one had ever told her it was an option. 

Shit, where was Max when she needed him. The boy had a ready definition for everything and everyone, and she had a feeling his direct method of speaking wouldn’t confuse or put off Kagami at all like it sometimes did his classmates. Alya was significantly less prepared. 

She stumbled through it anyway. “So, my boyfriend Nino and I. We’re both bi, right?” 

Kagami nodded. She was following so far. 

“And we’re still attracted to other people despite us dating. Also, we trust each other. As long as we tell each other about it, we can pursue and date other people, who of course would have to be okay with it too. We’ve, uh. Nino and I have each been after… someone… for a while. Those someones are two different people. But if they were the same person, that wouldn’t make a difference. In fact, it might be easier.” 

“Oh.” The other girl’s gaze was no longer focused on Alya. “I believe I have extrapolated from this what you intend me to.” 

Alya cheered. “There we go! Trust me, it might take Adrien and Marinette a bit to catch on, but who better to make them see the obvious than you? I mean, you were already the one to make Marinette realize she likes girls, so-” 

“Alya,” interrupted Kagami. “This is irrelevant. I am… interested… in what you are proposing and will do research in my own time. However, it is a moot point until an important factor is removed.” 

“What factor?” 

“While Lila Rossi is still in Paris, the only relationship Adrien will be able to have, even among friends, is with me. He does not wish for that, and thus, neither do I.” 

Huh. So they weren’t actually dating? Did Marinette know? She certainly hadn’t a week ago. Also, that might be a solvable problem sooner rather than later, but she couldn’t tell Kagami that. Furthermore, Alya didn’t understand. “Why?” 

“She spies on him for his father.” 

_“What.”_

Kagami held up a hand. “Before you go butterfly-catching, there is no way for that situation to end from his father’s side, and while Adrien knows this is happening at some level, he will not accept it. I have spoken to him about this on multiple occasions. I believe he will get there eventually, but it will take time. I do not begrudge him this. Seeing the totality of the flaws of a parent, especially the only parent you have left, does not come easily.” 

“But… you know Lila’s lying?” 

Kagami tilted her head a few degrees. “Do others not? Adrien told me of her fondness for deception before I ever met her, but from what I’ve heard and seen, her stories aren’t particularly credible or even interesting. Do your classmates truly believe her without hesitation?” 

“Unfortunately. She’s…” Alya had to be careful here. She supposed Kagami had been lucky enough to have Adrien ward off Lila’s glamour for her before it could ever take hold- it was good to know that was possible- but that meant she wouldn’t understand what it was like, or why she couldn’t try to just use reason to break it. “A surprisingly good liar.” 

“Hmm.” Kagami narrowed her eyes slightly, but if she was suspicious, she didn’t say it. “At any rate, if Adrien does anything his father does not approve of, Lila reports it. I believe her new position as a Gabriel model and unfettered access to Adrien is her reward.” 

“How are you so sure?” 

“Simple logic. Time and time again, Adrien is brave enough to take a step out of the boundaries set for him, to explore himself and what he wants, and shortly thereafter his father restricts his freedom again without explanation. Lila’s presence is a constant when it occurs, and no one else would do such a thing.” 

Alya groaned. “How does this bitch keep getting worse? Honestly, I’m surprised she survived you figuring it out.” 

Kagami’s eyes flashed dangerously. “She wouldn’t have if not for Adrien. He insisted that we not make trouble and let her be. We didn’t speak for a month over this extreme display of cowardice and weakness until I finally understood that it was in fact misplaced selflessness. That is still a flaw I would see him outgrow, but it is forgivable.” 

Okay, Alya could see not just how Marinette and Adrien liked this girl, but why they needed her. She was a natural, effortless grounding force for those two airheads. She’d hold Adrien accountable until his spine solidified and tell Marinette to her face that her anxiety spirals were irrational in a way Marinette would actually process and accept. Alya felt a little squeamish about being the one responsible for the former- she’d never been _that_ close to Adrien, though she resolved to fix that- and the latter was something she’d failed at time and time again. She simply didn’t have the perspective. The girl standing before her, on the other hand, most certainly did. 

“Are you done staring at me? May I go? My mother is waiting and delays longer than five minutes are unacceptable.” 

“Yeah,” blurted out Alya. “Sorry. Just… thinking. I guess keep, uh, _extrapolating_ from what I said? And be careful with my friends’ hearts, okay? Marinette especially. She’s strong, but somehow…” 

“So soft as well, yes.” Kagami’s face bore the slightest hint of a smile as she started off. A smile that Alya had never seen and once hadn’t believed existed. Alya wasn’t too surprised to see it now. Marinette did seem to have that effect on people. 

“Wait, one last thing.” The girl turned back. Kagami had said a rather… not Kagami-like phrase, and Alya was curious as to why. “Er. ‘Butterfly-catching?’ Really?” 

“What of it? I make jokes sometimes.” 

Alya peered at her. 

“…It was Adrien’s,” admitted Kagami sheepishly. This time, there was little ambiguity in her expression. So the Ice Queen- though Alya felt bad for ever thinking of her like that, now- could melt. It just took making her think fondly of either Adrien or Marinette. And that, Alya decided, was nothing short of adorable. Fuck, she was really getting invested in these three now. 

As Kagami left, and Alya went to find a likely still half-catatonic Marinette, she considered just how many people had fallen for her best friend. It was everyone who had ever gotten close to her, really. Nathaniel, Nino, Luka, Kagami, Adrien finally, and even both Ladybug and Chat Noir. Alya had no clue how the girl had done it, besides just being her charming and kind and clever self. 

Then again, Alya supposed that the fact that she didn’t understand was why she was an exception.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure you are, Alya.
> 
> Alya and Kagami have never interacted in canon to my recollection and they very rarely interact in fics. Both situations are unacceptable. I’m ping-ponging between thinking I wrote Kagami well and thinking I wrote her horribly. Like. She’s obviously autistic like Marinette, and while I personally lean more towards Marinette’s expression of it these days, there were a couple years where I spoke and interacted with others almost exactly like Kagami. I’m just not certain if my memories of what that was like are accurate enough to guide me in writing her dialogue, or if they’re too strong and are actively hindering me from recognizing key nuances.


	5. Chapter 5

Trixx was being infuriating again. The kwami had one setting, and it was “shenanigans.” 

Some critical information was being withheld. The whole Lila situation deeply amused Trixx, for some reason they weren’t disclosing. Instead of helping Alya theorize, they just giggled endlessly. It was really making Alya wish that she had Nino or Marinette to bounce ideas off of like usual. But the first knew nothing, and the second didn’t know everything. 

“Alright, I’ve had enough of this. What exactly is so funny?” Alya crossed her arms and glared. 

The being millions of years her elder failed to be intimidated. “I could give any number of answers, how would you know which was the truth?” 

“I thought kwamis couldn’t lie to their charges.” 

Trixx scoffed, tail lashing. “Directly? When asked about something that doesn’t involve another wielder’s identity? They can’t. But…” 

They drew in close and whispered, “Not me. If I couldn’t lie, I wouldn’t _exist._ The old Guardians knew that, but the last one and his successor… well. Hehe. Keep it a secret, and I might just tell _you_ a secret, kit! You have to promise…” 

“I am suspicious.” 

“Good. You should be! But you’re curious, aren’t you?” 

“…Alright. I promise, Trixx. Now what’s this secret?” 

Delighted, Trixx did a playful loop in the air. “Well. Not so much a secret as a hint. And not so much a hint as a riddle. And not so much a riddle as a question.” 

_“Trixx.”_

“Hey, what did you expect? Here goes. What are the Miraculous for?” 

“Um,” Alya said. “Do I only get one guess, or...?” 

The kwami laughed. “You get as many guesses as you like! You just don’t get the answer, not from me. You’re welcome to ask, but I might say a wrong one is right. Or I might say a right one is wrong. No holder of mine has ever been able to figure out when I’m lying, but you’re welcome to try, Alya Césaire.” 

“No thanks, I’m good,” Alya replied as her mental gears began to turn. What _were_ the Miraculous for? Fighting Papillon, here and now, but Papillon himself used a Miraculous. They couldn’t exist just to solve the problems that they themselves caused, surely. Were they even intended for battle at all? Many if not most didn’t seem strictly geared towards combat. Hers certainly wasn’t. 

Maybe with a better knowledge of past Miraculous holders, Alya would be able to start making some informed theories. As it was… “Trixx, that’s pretty much useless.” 

“Is it?” 

_“Yes.”_

The kwami just grinned. 

  


Ladybug didn’t know the answer to Trixx’s “riddle” either. Rena Rouge had joined them on their usual patrol to ask, forgoing her usual solo escapades, and now all three were relaxing on a hidden rooftop. 

“Careful with that one,” she warned. “Trixx can be… difficult. I figured you could handle them, but don’t let them trick you into doing something foolish.” 

Rena waved her flute dismissively. “Don’t worry. They’re a pain, but they’re growing on me. And I know better than to trust a fox.” She glanced down at herself. “Er. Most foxes.” 

“I dunno.” Ladybug gave her a poke on the forehead. “You seem pretty suspicious to me. Apparently, the Ladyblogger has had trouble tracking you down for an interview. Something wrong, Rena? You aren’t hiding from the press, are you?” 

Chat Noir, lounging nearby, let out a cackle. “Yeah, Rena. Come on, the Ladyblogger can be a bit of a pest, but she’s nice. You’ll like her.” 

“You’re both awful.” 

“Really?” Ladybug bore a sly smile. “I thought we were _brave_ and _determined_ and _wonderful._ Did your opinion of us change so quickly?” 

“I… you…” Rena sputtered. “How much did Marinette tell you? I swear, when I get my hands on that girl…” 

“Oh? When you get your hands on her? Do tell, Rena. Are you sure _you_ aren’t the one with a crush on my Princess?” 

“Your _what._ Okay, time out. Bullshitting over for a second.” Rena pointed at the cat hero brazenly draped over the rooftop. “What exactly is the nature of your relationship with my best friend? If either of you endanger her, I will not hesitate to bring your worst nightmares to life. Spoilers: it’s me. I’m your worst nightmare. Spill.” 

The duo shared a look Rena could not parse before Chat Noir replied calmly, “Oh, she’s just a friend.” 

Ladybug visibly bit back an outburst and quickly turned away so Rena couldn’t see her face. Even if his partner hadn’t reacted, Rena would have seen through Chat’s words easily. “I said _no bullshitting_ , kitty.” She twirled her flute threateningly, and for the first time, Chat Noir seemed to realize she was serious. He straightened up. 

“Rena Rouge, I swear to you that at no point before Papillon’s defeat will I, Chat Noir, show my good pal Marinette Dupain-Cheng anything but the most cordial of affection. The ‘nature of our relationship,’ as you put it, is simple. She made the mistake of feeding a tired stray cat one night, and now she can’t quite seem to get rid of me.” 

Despite herself, Rena chuckled. That was so very like Marinette. “Okay, okay.” She lowered her flute. “I’ll hold you to that.” 

She whirled on Ladybug, who was, for some odd reason, still struggling not to laugh. “And you, Bug. I see you blush whenever I bring Marinette up. In all seriousness, as adorable as you two would be, that girl has only just started to finally get her act together. Even if not for the danger, I’d still make you step off until things stabilize for her. Got it?” 

It took a full fifteen seconds before Ladybug managed to pull herself together to respond. Turning back, she croaked out, “Understood, Rena,” before promptly falling back into giggles. 

Rena’s head hurt. These conversations were always weirdly exhausting, regardless of how serious they were. Oh well. At least she knew for sure where they stood, now, and could go back to teasing them without worrying. 

  


Whatever Trixx was hiding, Alya considered the next morning, it wouldn’t likely end up mattering. Landing the final blow was still a ways off, but Lila was starting to lose her composure. She had returned after a three-day absence with bags under her eyes that no makeup could disguise. Her face was pale and drawn. She was talking less- _good_ , maybe without her reinforcing it the spell would be easier to break- and her eyes darted around her surroundings, examining each and every irregularity. 

All this, and Alya had only ever actually used her magic once. With Ladybug’s permission, of course. It had been one of Alya’s more devious ideas, if she did say so herself. 

She’d cast an illusion _of her casting an illusion._ That’s all. Lila had heard the quiet call of “Mirage,” coming from a rooftop above as she walked home, saw a flash of orange retreating, and no more. She’d frozen in place, breathing hard. 

For five solid minutes, Lila had stood still as a statue. Alya (Rena at the time, of course) had watched with glee from a faraway hiding spot as Lila worked herself into a panic over literally nothing at all. What fun! 

The instant the five minutes were up, by which point she’d gathered a crowd of concerned spectators, Lila _ran._ Rena, who had taken the intervening time to recharge casually as you like, had matched her pace on the rooftops until Lila dashed into her home and slammed the door. 

Beautiful. 

The result of her efforts was sitting a few rows behind her now, waving off questions from her classmates. Lila wasn’t even trying to pretend to be sick, though she wouldn’t have needed powers to convince anyone of that. 

Alya snuck a hand into her bag and gave a dozing Trixx a scratch on the back of the ears. She received a nudge and a flick of the tail in appreciation. 

  


Ugh. Maybe Alya had spoken too soon. Mere hours later, Lila had rallied and was back to her old standby with only the slightest wariness in her demeanor. 

In the hours after discovering Lila’s deception, Alya had spent some time wondering if the girl herself was even aware of her own abilities. That would go a long way toward explaining her behavior, if not justifying it. If Lila’s reality was one in which everyone had always believed everything she said provided it wasn’t _too_ blatantly untrue, Alya could see how that might produce the kind of person she was. Power corrupts, even unknowingly. 

The moment she’d heard Lila speak again, she didn’t have to wonder any more. She could _feel_ when Lila was putting effort into her words. Today was no different. The forced lies were like claws across a chalkboard, except the claws were Lila’s voice and the chalkboard was Alya’s brain. Not everything she uttered carried the weight of her magic, but the majority of her statements did. Even things that Alya didn’t really think needed it. Would Ivan, Mylène, or Sabrina, the three paying her the most attention, really disbelieve her current story about helping a lost American tourist that turned out to be a famous actor? It wasn’t likely, but in Paris, it was far from impossible. Did Lila think that everyone went around doubting anyone who claimed to lead any kind of interesting life? 

She really was pathetic. 

“And of course, after that, she wouldn’t have any guide but me. She insisted, so I managed to find time in my already _so busy_ schedule for her! I even managed to get her a private tour of the Egyptian exhibition at the Louvre, my second cousin is the head historian there in charge of it-” 

_Crack._

Alya jumped. Her hand was halfway up to her chest, to where her Miraculous was well hidden under her shirt, before she yanked it away. The necklace had flared with heat in the same instant something in the air had shifted violently. It hadn’t been a sound so much as a feeling, a moment as fleeting and precise as a lightning strike. Her senses had stretched beyond her body and told her, in no uncertain terms, that someone here was on the verge of shattering Lila’s glamour for themselves. 

Her boyfriend was staring at her. None of the others had seemed to notice. Adrien and Marinette only had eyes for each other, as was becoming more and more common, and most of the rest of the class was still focused on Lila with varying degrees of interest. She was still talking, but Alya couldn’t hear her over the hammering of her own heartbeat. She barely picked up Nino’s concern. “Hey. You okay there?” 

“…Yeah. Yeah, fine,” she murmured back. Ugh, she _hated_ lying to him, but as ever Nino didn’t question her. He shrugged and returned to splitting his attention between his lunch and Lila’s tale. 

Alya scanned the room. Most of the class was in earshot. Rose and Juleka were elsewhere; they liked to alternate spending the lunch break with their classmates and just with each other. Max had wandered off. Nathaniel was with Marc on the other side of the courtyard. So who- 

The answer was given to her when Alix Kubdel shakily got up, blurted out, “Bathroom,” and all but fled. Kim snickered, but the rest of the class paid her no mind. Thankfully, that included Lila. Alya waited half a minute before slipping away herself, claiming a similar need. 

The pink-haired girl wasn’t hard to find. Alix spent most every spare moment after school in the art room, and it was usually abandoned at this hour. Alya had used the same place to confront Adrien without risk of interruption, after all. 

Alix was pacing back and forth, waving her hands and muttering to herself. There was a faint pressure around her that Alya could easily identify as Lila’s glamour fighting back. The spell was being strained, but it was clear it was taking Alix’s full concentration. She hadn’t even noticed Alya in the doorway yet. 

It would only take a few words from her to tip it one way or the other. The safest thing to do would be to assure Alix that Lila had been mistaken or had just gotten mixed up. She was a very busy person, after all. Couldn’t be expected to remember everything. That part wouldn’t even be a lie, Alya realized, as Lila had forgotten that Alix’s own father was, in fact, the real historian in charge of the Egyptian exhibit at the Louvre. 

“Alix.” 

The girl looked her way, startled. Her face was shifting expressions rapidly, between anger and confusion and even a trace of embarrassment. 

Alya didn’t even have to think about her decision. “You’re right. Lila was lying. She has been this whole time. About everything, big and small. She doesn’t know any of those celebrities. She isn’t traveling when she’s not in class. And that day? She framed Marinette every step of the way for daring to question her.” 

That was all it took. Alya had thought it’d be harder, she’d had a lot more examples in this speech she’d rehearsed in the hopes that she’d get to use it eventually, but once again her borrowed powers alerted her as Lila’s enchantment crumbled completely. Alix’s face settled into rage. 

Akuma-worthy rage. 

Directed at _her._

“You _knew?!_ ” Alix shrieked- Alya was lucky she’d closed the door before saying anything- and then took a step towards her. “And you let her just carry right on? What the fuck! Marinette is your best friend, why would you-” 

It was weird to be on the other side of this. Same setting, same situation, but now Alya was the one being accused. She felt sick, but steeled herself. Alix was still ranting, a tiny ball of fury very different from the imposing, subdued anger Alya had directed Adrien’s way. She opened her mouth to speak, but Alix, apparently deciding that Lila was more deserving of her wrath, darted around her and made for the door. Alya grabbed Alix’s wrist before she reached it. 

“Unhand me or die, Césaire,” Alix spat. 

Alya wisely chose the former but started talking rapidly to keep Alix from continuing her rampage. Akumatized or no, she could ruin Ladybug’s plan. “Alix, stop. I didn’t find out until after Marinette got expelled. She forgave me already. And it’s more complex than you know. We’re waiting-” 

“Waiting? For _what?_ Just tell them. Or I’ll beat the truth out of her.” Alix cracked her knuckles. So she had no idea Lila was more than just a compulsive liar with a mean streak. Alya supposed her own immediate understanding of it was because of her Miraculous, though that didn’t explain Marinette and Adrien… whatever, it didn’t matter. Alix was poised to initiate a cascade of events that might lead right to Papillon’s victory. Alya couldn’t just stand by and let her. 

Wait. Hadn’t Ladybug said there was something Alya should say if this happened? Back when they had initially tried to free Alix, more as a test than anything? What was it now… Oh, yes. 

“Alix. Ladybug says… she knows how awesome you really are.” 

The effect was instantaneous. Alix froze. All the anger drained out of her, to be replaced with unadulterated glee. “Oh, _hell_ yes. Alright! Okay, I’m on board. Whatever you need. I’m _so_ ready.” 

Well. That was interesting. Alya shoved it into her internal “things to investigate later” box and rattled off another script she’d prepared. “For now, just stay silent, okay? I know it’ll suck, but it won’t be for long. Ladybug has told me that she and a couple other heroes are on the case. They just need time to work out how to prevent the, er, fallout.” 

Alix nodded. Alya had never seen her look so serious. “Understood.” 

“Can you tell me exactly how you figured it out?” 

“Uh, that bitch tried to claim she was related to my fucking dad? Duh,” Alix laughed. 

“So our talk last week didn’t help at all?” Asking questions like this made her instinctively reach for her phone to record. Whoops, not this time. 

The smaller girl went slackjawed for a moment, and then her face fell. “You tried to… oh. Uh, sorry. You were being weird and I stopped listening.” 

“It’s okay. C’mon, let’s head back. Don’t want anyone getting suspicious. Seriously, say nothing to anyone and don’t give Lila any indication that you know. But if you need to vent, Adrien, Marinette, and I are in the loop.” 

“Got it.” Alix saluted and took her leave ahead of Alya, a bounce in her step. 

  


Ladybug’s reaction to the news was almost as dramatic as Alix’s reaction to her message. She was _ecstatic._ And… relieved? Whatever exactly was going on here, Alya suspected that Alix Kubdel might just be the next hero of Paris. Alya wondered if she’d be able to see through her, now that she knew to look out for her. The pink hair would be a giveaway, surely. Hmm. That was a test of both the Miraculous in general and her powers specifically that she was looking forward to. She wouldn’t try, of course, but if she just so happened to figure it out, well, so be it. 

“Alya, this makes everything _so much_ easier. How did you pull it off?” 

Accepting an offered fist bump, Alya responded, “I didn’t. Lila did it to herself. Tried to namedrop a relative as holding a position filled by Alix’s own dad.” 

The spotted hero laughed out loud. “Serves her right. Seriously, this… wow. Okay. Let me think.” 

Sure enough, Ladybug was spaced out seconds later, muttering too quickly and quietly for Alya to hear. Alya flushed. This was the fourth time Ladybug had, without an actual need, come by to talk to her. Every time, Alya saw more and more of her crush, and every time she fell in love a little bit harder with not just the girl in the mask but the girl under the mask. Whoever she was. 

What Ladybug was doing now was something Alya had always admired and that she’d caught Chat Noir waxing poetic about in the past more than once. Ladybug was, in a word, brilliant. Whether she was making plans consciously or manifesting a bizarre strategy out of nowhere mid-battle, it was clear that Ladybug was incredibly good at finding the solution to problems too complex to articulate. She could take in a whole shifting matrix of information at a glance and instinctively understand every tiny detail of it and how it would change if any one variable was altered. Alya didn’t think that was anything to do with her Miraculous, it was just who she was. And who she was, was someone truly special. 

Plus, she was cute when she was focusing on something. Seeing it up close, the expression actually looked weirdly familiar… 

“Got it,” Ladybug interrupted her thoughts. Quickly, Alya pretended like she hadn’t just been staring. “I think I know how we’re going to do this. But a lot of it depends on you, Alya. I can handle the cleanup, I’ll have backup and every advantage I can think of, but you’re the one with the best chance of successfully exposing Lila. Are you alright with that? It could still backfire, she might have powers we don’t know about. There’s only so much I can work around that possibility.” 

“Are you kidding? I’d be _thrilled_ to finally take that bitch down,” Alya growled. “She hurt my friends. No one hurts my friends.” 

Ladybug smiled warmly at her, and Alya nearly combusted on the spot. 

“Alright,” the hero said. “Here’s what you need to do…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alix Kubdel is a sorely underutilized character. That said, Bunnyx will not be making an appearance. Or at least, Alya won’t see her, and she won’t play a major role. Resorting to time travel would be kind of overkill. Also, did y’all hear Alix got Word Of God confirmed as explicitly aromantic a while back? I’d prefer it to actually be stated in the show, of course, but that’s still pretty fucking rad.


	6. Chapter 6

All told, Alya considered, this had been the best two weeks of her life. And if tomorrow went well, it would finish on one hell of a high note. She had done everything she could. Lila’s reign would end in mere hours. 

Today, she was spending time with Marinette. The poor girl had caught a stomach bug of some kind and would miss the big moment. Maybe that was for the best. If they failed and Lila became akumatized, Marinette would no doubt be one of her main targets after Ladybug and Rena Rouge. Without a Miraculous, she wouldn’t be able to defend herself against what would be one of the most powerful supervillains to date. Which was why they couldn’t fail. 

Not that Alya would be able to help too much there. She was putting a lot of trust in Ladybug, but not one bit of it was undeserved. 

Marinette, on the other hand, was proving to be less than reliable. “I told you to watch my back, girl, not throw a grenade at me.” 

“Sorry, sorry! I’m just not used to these controls.” Alya had managed to convince Marinette to play something other than Mecha Strike for once. It wasn’t going well. Marinette was out of her element and, while she was learning fast as she always did, Alya’s deaths by friendly fire were mounting ever higher. 

With Alya gone, it wasn’t long before Marinette was overwhelmed. The screen faded to black as the level restarted. The smaller girl tossed down her controller and flopped into Alya’s lap, groaning. “I’m terrible.” 

Alya patted her head fondly. “No you’re not. I’d have never thought of setting up that trap with the forklift. Admittedly, you could have bothered to tell me what you were doing so I didn’t get caught in it too, but hey, I made it out alive. Until you killed me. Try again?” 

“Nope. Too comfortable. Can’t move.” 

“Fine, fine.” Alya set down her controller too and pulled Marinette closer. “You’re sick. You get to be lazy.” 

The two girls just relaxed for a while before Marinette spoke. “Hey, Al?” 

“What’s up?” 

“You know how… um. You and Nino… you let each other, like… er, you’re… _ugh_ , why can’t I say it?” 

Alya chuckled. “Oh, I know that look. This is about Adrien. Or is it Kagami? Or both? Probably both. You three are pretty cute together, you know.” 

“I… well, yes… sort of!” Marinette squeaked out, reddening even further. “I just don’t know how to, um. Ask. It’s so complicated…” 

“Not as complicated as you think, girl. Most things aren’t.” She gave Marinette a light rap on the forehead. “You always do this to yourself. I know it’s just who you are, but I promise you, neither of them would mind. And almost no one would hate you for suggesting it. Besides, it’s _you_. You’re amazing. Just say something.” 

Once again, her words hadn’t seemed to help much. Marinette was even more flustered. Whoops. “I… Alya, you… _dang it_.” 

“Hey, I get that you’re stressed, but let’s watch the fucking language.” 

That got a laugh out of Marinette, and she lifted her head and brought it down to rest on Alya’s shoulder. In no time at all, she had dozed off. Alya let her be. The girl never did seem to get enough sleep. 

  


Rena Rouge met up with Ladybug and Chat Noir at the crack of dawn. To her surprise, she found another hero there, one she’d never personally seen in action. 

Superhero fangirl mode activated. 

“Viperion, right?” 

The wielder of the Snake Miraculous nodded. “That’s me. Hello, Rena Rouge. Ladybug called me in to help with the operation today. Hopefully, we won’t need my power at all, but if things look like they’re about to go wrong, I’ll do what I can to fix it.” 

Rena’s hands itched to reach for her phone, but it hadn’t followed her into the suit. Could her flute record? Probably, but she didn’t know how to do that yet. “What exactly is your power? How many times have you been in the field? Would you be willing to-” 

Ladybug cleared her throat. _“Rena.”_

“Right, sorry, not now. So this is your backup?” 

“A third of it,” Ladybug said. “Another third I have with me, and the last resort could show up at any, heh, time. Probably. I’m not sure, because even I don’t quite know how that Miraculous works. But if she does show up, it’ll mean that we’re going to win. Uh, I think?” 

Chat Noir patted her shoulder. “Don’t stress yourself out, bugaboo. This is going to go _purrfectly._ I’m only sorry I can’t do very much to help. But if you need me, I’ll be there before you can blink.” 

She shot him a look that, in Alya’s professional opinion, was not at all platonic. They’d really have to work on that if they intended to keep their budding relationship a secret. She caught Viperion’s eye and they shared an amused smile. 

“Thanks, kitty,” murmured Ladybug. Turning to Rena, she adopted a much more professional tone. Or, she tried. Clearly, she was still thinking about her partner, but Rena was happy to pretend that the affection remaining in the hero’s voice was for her. “Think you’re ready, Fox?” 

“As I’ll ever be. The last few days must have done a number on Lila. One way or another, she’ll fall for the trap.” 

It had been an unreasonable amount of fun. Lila had danced to the tune of her flute exactly as predicted, not that Rena had actually used her flute much. For someone like Lila, the threat of an illusion was far more effective than the illusion itself. Once, going a step deeper into the mind games than she had previously, Rena had cast a Mirage of her saying the opposite incantation, “Reality.” That had thrown an increasingly wary Lila for a loop, and all the while the pressure on her was growing. She knew she was being hunted. 

Of course, that meant she’d make for an even more deadly akuma. Papillon’s greatest weapons were fairly consistently strong-willed individuals, good or evil or somewhere in between, who were driven to a breaking point. On the one hand, his window of opportunity was fairly small if he wanted to unleash Lila’s full potential, so they could take preventative measures during that time. On the other hand, if they failed… 

No. They wouldn’t fail. 

“And the illusion you need?” 

In lieu of a response, Alya brought her flute to her lips and played a quick, vibrant chord before calling for a Mirage. Ladybug looked at what she’d cast, or rather, failed to look at it, and smiled. “Perfect.” 

“Damn right. Let’s do this.” Rena dismissed her illusion. Ignoring the warning beep from her necklace, she gave the assembled heroes a quick salute. “Better be off. Good luck, all of you.” 

Ladybug echoed her sentiment, which coming from her, meant a little something extra in more ways than one. There was a smile on Rena’s face as she leapt away in the direction of her school. 

  


Lila Rossi was late to class. 

Ladybug had said she would make sure that happened. Rena suspected that she had done something characteristically noble in the process, like waylaying her and giving her one last chance to confess her lies on her own. Not something Rena would have bothered with, but she supposed it did serve to rile Lila up even more. 

Sure enough, there was distinct irritation bleeding through in her movements when Rena spotted her. Not that she spent long watching her approach. Rena darted into the classroom and cried out, quite loudly, “Mirage!” 

The oncoming footsteps went silent. Rena waited with bated breath by the window. If Lila didn’t fall for it, here and now, everything they’d done would have been for nothing. They’d have to start all over from scratch. 

The footsteps picked up again, louder and more rapid. Rena barely restrained a grin as Lila strode in, eyes sweeping over the empty classroom before falling on Rena. 

_“You,”_ Lila snarled. 

Oh, this was going to be good. “Me.” 

“What do you want, you stupid fox? Is this what Ladybug meant? You’d start stalking me here too? You really are obsessed. Do you know how easy it would be for me to destroy you? The rumors I could spread about you, that no one would ever question? Back off, or I’ll do to you what I did to that brat Marinette.” 

“Careful, Rossi. You know my powers better than anyone, since you’ve claimed to be me more than once. How do you know anything you’re seeing right now is real?” 

“Please,” Lila said dismissively. “Your illusions are garbage. I’ve been pretending to react to them for days, when you actually bother to _do_ anything. I bet you wasted your Mirage just to make your necklace flash because you couldn’t think of anything else to do. Honestly, you should do us all a favor and hand over that Miraculous to me. You’re embarrassing yourself.” 

“Am I?” Rena slashed her flute through the air. _“Reality.”_

A great deal happened at once. 

It was one thing to create something with Mirage. Rena was good at that, certainly. Good enough to ensure every non-fakeout illusion she’d cast for Lila had just a touch of imperfection. However, what Rena had been practicing, and what she now viewed as her greatest weapon, was the ability to _conceal_ something. Instead of altering the appearance of reality, she could simply void out part of it. Remove anything from her surroundings, as much or as little as she liked provided everything she was hiding shared a defining quality that she could focus on. 

When her classmates and teacher materialized in their seats, each torn between alarm, confusion, and anger, the blood drained out of Lila’s face. 

Lila Rossi’s spell evaporated in a wave spreading outward from where Rena stood. Instead of the straining and snapping Rena had expected as each of her classmates individually broke free, every single person under Lila’s influence was released in the same instant that the magic of the Fox Miraculous brought them back into plain view. There was not a trace of resistance and no real effort being expended on her part. 

And finally, Rena understood. 

Her Miraculous had two powers, two incantations. “Mirage,” to create illusions. And “Reality,” to _dispel them._ Just because the illusions weren’t of her own making didn’t mean she didn’t have control over them. Of course she did. The concept of illusion, deception, and all that which is hidden was her domain and hers alone. Whatever natural magic Lila had, it didn’t hold a candle to the powers of the Fox. Rena could have ended this whole charade with one word right from the beginning. No wonder Trixx had been laughing at their meticulous plotting. 

There, too, was the answer to the question her kwami had posed. The Miraculous were for _this._ People like Lila had around forever, those who misuse their gifts to hurt others. For those whose gifts were beyond mundane, it would take a more powerful wielder of the same magic to stop them. A user chosen for their skills and strength of character, rather than by blind luck or whatever factor controlled when an ordinary person became extraordinary. 

Rena Rouge had done her job. Lila fled without a word. In the ensuing pandemonium, the true Fox, sparing only a moment to lock eyes with Nino, slipped out the window and left Adrien and Alix, the only two who were prepared, to try to restore order. 

  


Alya Césaire was late to class. 

She had an excuse ready. She’d had to go by Marinette’s to deliver the previous day’s assignments. Not the best cover story, but Marinette herself had gotten away with far worse even when everyone knew she’d just overslept. Alya’s attendance was near-perfect, no one would question it, and certainly no one would expect her to be entering the school for the second time that day. 

Not that her forethought was truly necessary here. Mlle. Bustier, Adrien, and Alix were still trying to control the chaos, the first rather shakily. They weren’t doing a very good job. The latter was far better at causing disorder than preventing it, and as for Adrien… he was still learning to assert himself. Alya, on the other hand, had no such reservations. 

“Okay, what the _hell_ is going on in here?” 

Her barking question silenced the room, their teacher’s automatic admonishment about her language notwithstanding, and after an extended pause it was Nino that spoke first. 

“Hey, uh, Alya. Could you maybe, uh, call Marinette, if she’s feeling up to it? I think we all have something to say to her…” 

She knew she liked this boy for a reason. Pretending to be confused, Alya did as Nino asked, but Marinette didn’t pick up. She was probably still asleep. “Later, I guess. So, what was so important that required me to call my best friend when she should be resting?” 

The task of explaining the earlier events to her seemed to settle everyone down. Going over them again, from varying perspectives, helped them process. That was something Alya had learned from Marinette. Both from dealing with the girl, and from Marinette’s own actions. Even absent, she found a way to help. 

So Alya was regaled with the tale of a superhero dashing into their classroom and warning them of danger headed their way. Not an akuma, she’d insisted. Something else. Calmly, Rena Rouge had explained that she was going to use her magic to hide all of them so as to keep them from harm, and it was important that they remain as still as possible and not make a sound no matter what. 

Alya wasn’t sure if that had really been necessary, her illusions could alter sound and scent as well as sight (if not touch, and she’d hadn’t tried to alter taste yet). Theoretically, her Mirage intended to hide the presence of everyone in this room save Rena herself would have included every external sense. Always best to be on the safe side, though. That was something Alya had learned from Ladybug. 

It was up to the spotted hero now. Alya’s part was over, unless Ladybug failed and Rena Rouge was called upon to fight. Ladybug had never seen fit to share her plan for preventing Lila’s akumatization, and Alya had accepted that with only the slightest discontent. She couldn’t help but worry for both Ladybug and Marinette. If anything happened to either of them… it would destroy Alya. 

She wished her best friend were here. Both to share in this victorious moment, and to lean on as what would surely be the longest and most anxiety-filled class period of her life dragged onwards. Plus, each and every one of the people in this room owed Marinette a public apology, and Alya would make sure they gave her one. True, it really wasn’t their fault, but it was the principle of the thing. 

  


It felt like an eternity, but their lunch break arrived. After pulling Nino aside and swearing to explain everything to him that evening, Alya slipped out of the school. In no time Rena Rouge was bounding across the rooftops of Paris. 

Hands shaking, she pulled up her flute and tracked Ladybug’s location. She was… at the Arc de Triomphe? Rena hoped that was a good omen or an intentional choice by Ladybug as she adjusted her bearings and picked up the pace. 

The moment she landed on the monument, she was tackled into a hug by her crush. 

Oh. Oh, okay, this was happening now. _Fuck do something uh… hug her back, idiot!_

So she did. When Ladybug pulled away, Rena swore there was a second where the hero was about to kiss her. But then it passed. It must have been her imagination. “Lila’s gone,” said Ladybug with a smile. 

Wait. Rena’s brain threw up a warning. She’d heard Chat Noir talk about a time he’d almost been fooled at this very spot. And this really was too perfect. Rena had to be sure. Good for her, then, that she could do so easily. 

“Reality.” 

Nothing happened. Her necklace didn’t even flicker. Ladybug looked at her quizzically as Rena let out a sigh of relief. “Uh. What was that?” 

“Just checking this wasn’t a trick. It’s really over? Where’s Viperion?” 

“Oh, gone home. He never had to use his power. Or at least I don’t think he did. Kind of hard to be sure,” Ladybug mused. 

“Okay, I’ll be finding out what _that_ means later, but… what about your other mysterious backup?” 

That got a laugh out of Ladybug. “Oh, she showed up, sure enough. Twice. First time she just waved and peaced right back out. Second time was just to let me know that my job was done and Papillon wouldn’t send any more butterflies. I think he must have run out. There were _so many_.” 

“How did she know- wait, okay. Can you tell me how exactly you did this, now that it’s done? You would have had to follow her everywhere. For hours, I assume.” 

“Well… let’s just say I had some extra magic on my side. You haven’t seen all the Miraculous, Rena.” 

Ladybug was definitely teasing her. It was doing things to Rena’s head, and she couldn’t quite process the implications of what she’d just been told. “Yeah, yeah okay. I need a moment. She’s… she’s just _gone?_ Where did she go?” 

“Back to Italy. Her plane left an hour ago. I think she knew she was going to lose, one way or another. Or at least she prepared for the eventuality and was ready to run. The weird thing was her mom.” 

Oh fuck. All this time, and Rena hadn't thought about the older Rossi. The woman had never once been around when Rena was watching Lila. “How did she react?” 

“I was there, still swiping butterflies, when Lila’s mother confronted her. I didn’t understand everything they said, because they spoke in Italian, but it seemed like… Lila’s mom knew about her lies, but had only just found out? But also, wasn’t too surprised? I think she was aware her daughter wasn’t totally normal, she just didn’t know how badly she was being played. I’m guessing Lila will find it a lot harder to fool her mother from now on, though I don’t exactly understand how it happened.” 

Rena grinned. So, her suspicion was correct. Her magic hadn’t just destroyed Lila’s glamour influencing the class. It had destroyed it for every single person Lila had sunk her claws into. Including her own mother. Sure, Rena might not have been able to take away Lila’s power, but undoing the work of months had taken not even a second of her time. “You’re welcome for that, Bug.” 

“Wait, what? How…” 

As Ladybug’s eyes shone with excitement and affection during her explanation, Rena came to a conclusion. Rena had told Ladybug, some time ago now, that while her identity was safe from the Fox's perception, her crushes weren’t. And it was impossible to deny, now, that Ladybug carried a torch for _her._ It was plain as day on her face. Rena wasn’t totally oblivious, unlike a certain blond-haired model she knew. 

Nothing would come of it. Not now. Rena knew that. But the idea that one day, when all this was over, they could meet up again at this thematically appropriate location and Ladybug would lean in rather than pull away… Oh, it was wonderful. Rena could be patient. 

Eventually, the two heroes lapsed into a comfortable silence. 

“So,” said Rena. 

“So.” 

“Where you do think Lila’s powers came from, anyway?” 

Ladybug shrugged. “No idea. My kwami says there’s lots of magic around besides the Miraculous. She even says we’ve met a couple other natural users, but she wouldn’t tell me their names. I didn’t want to try to make her.” 

“Typical. Any ideas who?” 

“A few. You, uh, know the ice cream guy? The one who mainly serves couples?” 

_“André?”_

Her blatant incredulity put Ladybug on the defense. “Hey, I’m just saying! He knows more than he should, I swear.” 

“Ladybug. That’s ridiculous. And this is coming from the girl who briefly thought you and Chat Noir were aliens. André is not magical.” 

“He speaks in rhyme, shows up in unexpected places, and doesn’t seem to care in the slightest about whether you pay him or not! He always has the exact right flavor of ice cream he needs, no matter how bizarre! Rena, come on, something’s up. You know this stuff better than I do, you have to see it too.” 

“Maybe. Or maybe he’s just a quirky well-off hobbyist ice cream vendor with a knack for observation and poetry,” Rena argued. 

“And Lila was just an average liar,” said Ladybug, deadpan. 

Changing tracks, because _fuck_ she was actually considering it now and she did not like it very much, Rena asked, “Think we’ll see her again?” 

“Hope not. Who knows, maybe she’s learned her lesson.” 

“Or she’ll be the next Papillon. Or something even worse we’ll have to fight years down the road. Like a politician.” 

Ladybug shuddered. “If she starts abusing her powers openly like that… well. The Horse Miraculous can get you to her, and you can cast Reality again.” 

“I’ll hold you to that. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of Lila Rossi.” 

“Maybe,” came the hero’s response. “But for now? She’s gone, and we don’t have to care about her or even waste time thinking about her. To borrow a phrase from a very good friend and ally of mine: it’s what she deserves.” 

Rena couldn’t agree more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let’s play “spot the shameless Homestuck reference.” 
> 
> I say that as if I haven’t been writing this with the classpects I’ve assigned to Marinette and Alya constantly in mind. I kind of do this a lot. It’s almost like that’s the best use of classpects, as a way to describe a character’s role in a narrative and their default method of dealing with challenges.
> 
> Anyway. Bye, Lila. Get wrecked. The concept of the “Reality” incantation, only seen once in Kwamibuster as of writing, being a whole separate ability of its own was a late-night brainwave. All my best ideas are. I think it works very well, as does my idea of what the Miraculous were intended for. Or at least a part of their purpose. Cosmic balance, blah blah, sometimes there’s just an evil magical bastard that needs to get their shit kicked in by someone who actually deserves to have that kind of power.
> 
> Also, I intentionally refrained from naming which other Miraculous it was that Ladybug used. Mainly because it irrationally bugs me when I read early fics that assign powers to Miraculous that hadn’t been revealed yet, though I definitely don’t blame the authors for getting creative and it can be a lot of fun. It’s just a personal thing. I know most people give invisibility to the Tiger, and I could have gone with that as it does seem likely, but just in case I decided to leave it vague.


	7. Chapter 7

“Nino Lahiffe. You have time and time again proven yourself worthy of the power of protection, and I believe that now is the time for you to retain that power permanently. The Turtle Miraculous is yours, to wield and to guard. I know you will use it for the greater good, and I will only ask that you return it to me in the event that your identity is exposed to someone we cannot trust. Do you accept? Think carefully.” 

Rena’s boyfriend thought about it a lot more than she had. He was likely still holding onto some guilt from the last few months, despite both her, Marinette, and even Ladybug reassuring him repeatedly that it wasn’t his fault and he had no way to know. But in the end, there was only one response he would ever give. 

“Yeah, totally. I mean, yes, Ladybug.” 

Sparing only a few seconds to exchange his traditional greeting with Wayzz- something that was both hopelessly lame and utterly endearing- Nino transformed into Carapace. The green light hadn’t quite faded when Rena pounced him, bowling him over. 

“Welcome to the team.” She planted a kiss on his nose, then leapt up, pulling him back to his feet. “Hey, Bug, we’re gonna go run around the city on our own, do you mind?” 

“Uh, we are?” 

“Yes.” 

“Oh. Okay.” 

Ladybug chuckled. “All right, I suppose. Just don’t start making out anywhere too obvious, okay? Papillon doesn’t seem to care that much about either of your Miraculouses, but still no reason to taunt him.” 

“If you insist.” Rena took Carapace by the wrist and dragged him to the window, and together, they leapt out into the warm evening air. 

Close to a full hour was spent just scampering around Paris, letting everyone know that the wielder of the Turtle Miraculous was now a fully-fledged member of the team. That, and doing the kind of stunts they’d practiced as their civilian selves with the aid of the suits. It made a real difference, and not entirely in the ways Rena expected. 

She was, by a significant margin, more agile than Carapace. As civilians, they more or less matched. As heroes, the traits of their kwami’s chosen forms bled through enough to slow down her boyfriend. He was still faster than a normal human, of course, but Rena could run rings around him. And above him. Clearing all but the tallest buildings in Paris with one powerful leap was well beyond the Turtle’s capabilities. On the other hand, when they sparred, Carapace was an unbreakable wall. Even unblocked blows with her flute were simply shrugged off, and when he finally landed a clean bash with his shield, he sent her flying. 

“Oh, shit, Al- Rena? You okay?” 

Groaning, more from the indignity of it all than any real pain, Rena struggled to her feet. The wall behind her bore a small crack- oops- but she was indeed unhurt. Thanks, Trixx. “No, no, I’m fine. Looks like the Fox really isn’t made for brawling. At least not with the team’s resident tank. Seriously, what is that shield made of?” 

“Uh, turtle power?” 

“Absolutely not. Never say that again.” 

“Aww.” 

“Okay, fine.” Rena conceded. “You can call it that.” 

“Hell y-” 

“ _Once._ Choose your moment wisely, turtle boy.” 

Carapace pouted. “Fine.” 

They set off at a leisurely pace across the rooftops, going nowhere in particular. Rena helped him clear the larger gaps. “Oh, by the way. Remember our little competition? About who could get with our favorite superhero first?” 

“You _didn’t._ No way.” 

Rena flashed him a fanged grin. “Not quite. Ladybug is firmly against their duo dating in the suits until Papillon is gone. That includes each other. But she’s fallen for me, I guarantee it. I win this round. If it helps, I asked Chat Noir what he’d think of going out with you sometime, and he was… open to the idea.” 

Her boyfriend tripped, almost throwing himself off a building. In one bound Rena Rouge caught him and pulled him backwards. “Seriously? Maybe Marinette’s nonsense really is contagious.” 

“No, I… Dude. He really said that?” 

“Oh, yes. Kitty went pretty red, too. And remember: Ladybug told him who we are. So he doesn’t just like Carapace, he likes _you._ ” 

Maybe she shouldn’t have said that. After a few disastrous attempts to get moving again, the next twenty minutes were spent waiting for the newest permanent hero of Paris to regain the majority of his brain function. Ah, the dangers of leather-clad cat boys. Not really Rena’s type, but she could at least relate. 

  


Alya had been shocked to learn that Juleka Couffaine had never had a proper birthday party before. Not because she hadn’t had the opportunity, but because the idea of all that attention terrified her. This year, however, with her girlfriend, her brother, and her entire class supporting her, she had relented. There was one condition: it was a party, on her birthday. It would not be a birthday party. No presents, no focus on her whatsoever. 

This offered Alya a fantastic opportunity. After receiving the invite some days ago, she’d messaged the girl in question. 

**Alya:** hey. can i use the party to finally get marinette together with her two idiots. i was just gonna throw them in a closet 

**Juleka:** oh awesome… yeah do that. gl 

Excellent. And now, with any luck, her mission would be done before sunset. Originally, Alya had been going to present Marinette with a half-facetious bill for her services, payable in the form of regular treats from her parents’ bakery, but instead she decided that she owed the girl after… everything. Marinette had forgiven her a million times, but if Alya pulled this off, she could finally accept that forgiveness for good. 

There was one last thing Alya had to attend to before the party. She’d exchanged phone numbers with Kagami a while back, but had yet to contact her. Now was the time. 

**Alya:** hey tsurugi, got a moment? 

The response came swiftly. 

**Kagami:** I am confused. I was under the impression that in most Western cultures, addressing someone by their last name without an honorific is an insult. However, I do not believe there is any cause for enmity between us. 

**Alya:** oh lol no. i mean it can be an insult? it’s a context thing. here it’s just me being casual but i won’t do it if you want 

**Kagami:** I see. Thank you for explaining. I would indeed prefer that you use my first name going forward. Now, what do you want to discuss? 

**Alya:** so the “factor” keeping you and adrien and marinette apart is gone 

**Kagami:** Yes. Adrien implied you were responsible, though he seemed hesitant to share the full story. 

**Alya:** uh. i mean i got them on the case but it was rena rouge and ladybug that did it 

**Kagami:** Ah. Well, whatever part you played, you have my gratitude. 

**Alya:** and now…? 

**Kagami:** We shall see. 

**Alya:** not good enough. the party in two hours. at the couffaine houseboat. i’m throwing adrien and marinette in a closet until they either starve or make out 

**Kagami:** Two weeks ago, I would have said that they’d starve first. Now, I’m not certain you’ll have time to close the door. 

**Alya:** which is why you should be there too 

**Kagami:** Agreed. You will have my cooperation. Are you giving the other two this kind of advance warning? 

**Alya:** no. just you. mainly because i think if i laid a hand on you without telling you why you’d try to stab me 

**Kagami:** You think correctly. 

**Alya:** yeah. anyway i was probably going to get them first and throw you in afterwards. that alright with you? 

**Kagami:** Should I pretend to struggle? To keep up appearances? 

**Alya:** oh definitely 

**Kagami:** Understood. Now, if you don’t mind me asking, what are your plans, Alya? 

**Alya:** i just told you? 

**Kagami:** Regarding Marinette, I mean. 

**Alya:** ??? 

**Kagami:** I did as you asked and kept extrapolating. Further conclusions came easily. However, if you do not wish to discuss it, I understand. 

**Alya:** girl i have no idea what you’re talking about 

**Kagami:** Oh. My apologies. Please disregard. I will see you in two hours. 

**Alya:** uh. okay. sounds good 

Well. That had been a weird conversation. But it was Kagami, after all. Alya would have plenty of time to get used to her quirks, since by the end of the day the girl would be dating her best friend. They were going to be so good together. She would never admit it out loud, but the three of them might just be cuter than Ladybug and Chat Noir. 

  


The party had, predictably, turned into an impromptu Kitty Section rehearsal. This meant that the closet where the bulkier musical instruments were kept was mostly empty. This was the perfect moment to strike. 

Alya didn’t mean to eavesdrop on Marinette’s conversation with Luka. She was just waiting for the girl to get up, and caught the tail end of it. 

“-thank you, for everything. And you know, Luka… it’s okay to _want_ things. Don’t let your chance at happiness get away from you because you didn’t reach for it, alright? You deserve better than that, and whoever you’re after deserves to feel wanted, too.” 

“Huh,” said the soft-spoken boy. “Thanks, Marinette. I’ll keep that in mind. Now, I think your friend wants to speak to you.” 

Alya jumped. She’d been behind both of them, how had he…? 

Marinette was regarding her suspiciously. Luka, on the other hand, bore the very definition of a “knowing gaze.” It was more or less his default expression, as far as Alya could tell. It had rubbed her the wrong way for a long time before his laid-back attitude and casual compassion convinced her that he wasn’t secretly an asshole. 

“Hey, girl. Come with me.” She grabbed Marinette’s wrist and pulled her upright. “Something important to show you.” 

“Okay…” Marinette followed her across the deck and a level below. “Alya, this is the storage closet.” 

“Exactly.” With a sudden, sharp movement, she thrust her best friend inside, shutting and locking the door. “Stay right there. I’ll be back with your prince in a moment. And maybe your princess, too.” 

_“Alyaaaaa!”_

  


The deck of the boat buzzed with conversation as the whole class pretended they weren’t just waiting for the three to emerge from below. Bets were being placed on their level of dishevelment. Or, well, Alix and Kim were making wild guesstimates with unclear parameters and rather unusual currencies as stakes. Business as usual, really. 

Nino was, oddly, fussing around with his phone. Alya frowned at him. He was always in the thick of things at parties, if not the one at the helm in charge of the music. To see him grinning and typing away instead of paying attention to the people around him… something was off. When he noticed her looking his way, he gave her a thumbs up and a wink. Uh oh. What had he just done? She started to head over to confront him when the sound of three pairs of footsteps rang out behind her. Ah, so they’d finally noticed that Alya hadn’t actually bothered to lock the door the last time. 

Oh my god. They were really just. Holding hands. Marinette in the center, Adrien on her right, and Kagami on her left. All three shared the same sheepish grin, even Kagami. And they all looked just a little… ruffled. Marinette’s pigtails seemed to have been hastily redone, a few strands of hair hanging loose. 

Alya brought her hands together in delight. These three were adorable, and it was _about damn time._ By the whooping of her classmates, Alya figured they agreed. 

“Gee, Marinette,” drawled Alix above the clamor. “How come your mom lets you have _two_ partners?” 

The girl tried to respond, but started stuttering hopelessly. She was a bit overwhelmed from the noise and attention. It didn’t take long for her classmates to recognize that and settle down, giving her another chance to speak. 

“A- actually. If… if she’s okay with it…” Marinette’s voice drained away. 

In turn, Kagami and Adrien leaned in close and whispered something to her. The girl took a deep breath, closing her eyes. When she opened them, they bore the sharp glint of determination that meant nothing, not even the supervillain terrorizing Paris, would stand between Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her goal. 

“Actually…” 

Marinette let go of her partners’ hands and took a step forward, in Alya’s direction. 

“If she’s okay with it…” 

Another step. She was very close, now, and Alya’s heart was starting to race while her brain was still tripping over itself at the starting line. 

“It might be three.” 

Alya barely registered those words, and certainly didn’t notice Marinette reaching one hand up to rest on her shoulder while snaking the other around her waist. 

“Alya. If you don’t stop me, I am going to kiss you.” 

She didn’t, and Marinette dragged her down to close the gap between them. 

Alya Césaire was no stranger to magic. And she felt it here, in this moment, with Marinette’s lips on hers. Illusion melted into reality with the revelation that Alya had never been the exception to her best friend’s charms. In her own way, she’d fallen harder and faster than anyone else. 

She had just, as Kagami would put it, chosen the wrong target. Ladybug and Marinette had so much in common, Alya could see that now. She’d met them on the same day, and they’d become hopelessly entangled in her mind. The two brightest lights in her life. If not for Nino’s softer and calmer influence, she would have burned herself up chasing one or both of them months ago. Now, she was ready. 

Her head felt like it was going to burst from the pressure as her thoughts sorted themselves out. Very, very slowly. At some point, she’d started kissing Marinette back. It was, to say the least, a distraction. 

What she’d said to Ladybug was true. Marinette was the hero’s equal, and very possibly her superior. They shared a will of iron that no obstacle could bend or break. Ladybug used hers as part of her mask, covering up the easygoing and quick to laugh person underneath in all company but those she trusted most. Marinette disguised hers under a layer of crippling anxiety and unrelenting kindness. Sometimes, she stumbled. But she got back up. Again, and again, and again. Marinette had grown in leaps and bounds since Alya had known her, accelerating all the while, and she showed no signs of stopping. She was going to become someone great. Someone spectacular. Someone miraculous. 

Alya would be right there by her side. So would Adrien. So would Kagami. Marinette would be all the stronger for it. 

When they separated, Alya croaked out, “How long?” 

Marinette, blushing redder than she’d ever seen, replied, “Uh… forever, I think? But I only figured it out a little while ago. It’s been. A pretty crazy couple of weeks.” 

“So… when you said…” 

“Yes. I don’t know which time you’re referring to, Al, but the answer is probably yes.” 

Oh. “I may have been an idiot.” 

“A certain level of idiocy does seem to be the running theme amongst us, yes.” Kagami had, at some point, crept close enough to be heard over the excited chatter surrounding them. “There is no shame in it. We are bound to make some mistakes. This is a delicate process even in the simplest of cases, and ours is anything but simple.” 

“I don’t know,” said Adrien from next to her, a wide grin on his face that, while Alya definitely hadn’t seen it before, suited him very well. “I think we deserve a little bit of shame. Marinette’s told me about a few of her failed confession attempts, but I think I’d like to hear about them from her wingwoman who had to watch helplessly as all her hard work went to waste time and time again.” 

“Don’t you dare, ch- _Adrien._ ” 

“I might dare.” 

“I’ll admit, I too am interested to hear details of these escapades. They sound quite endearing.” 

“Ugh.” Marinette buried her face in Alya’s shoulder again. “See what I have to put up with? You can’t expect me to deal with these two on my own. I might need help.” 

Finally, Alya regained some control of herself. Enough to sass, anyway, which was the important bit. “Hey girl, I’ll date _you,_ but these two dorks are all yours. In all seriousness, think you can handle this? Kagami was right, this won’t be simple. Especially with Adrien’s… you know what, let’s not ruin this by talking about him. But are you sure?” 

“Alya,” said Marinette, with a confident smile that lit a flame in Alya’s core and incinerated any last reservations she had. “I have never been more sure about anything in my life.” 

How had she not realized that she loved this girl sooner? “Well then… it’s my turn.” 

When Alya kissed her without further warning, Marinette made a cute little squeak of surprise and delight. Alya resolved to hear that sound as often as possible from now on. 

  


Rena Rouge sat alone at the top of Tour Montparnasse, playing her flute and watching the lights of the city below. The melody drifting through the air was imprecise, varying, but nonetheless beautiful. Or at least she thought so. She hadn’t felt up to performing for an audience yet. 

The sound of a yo-yo retracting informed her that she was being given another chance to do so, but she let her flute drop. “Hey there, Ladybug.” 

“Couldn’t sleep, Rena?” 

“Nah. The last few days have been… amazing, but so much. I needed some time to think.” 

Ladybug plopped down next to her. “It’s been eventful for me too. If you want to talk, I’m all ears. I do know a little bit about your situation already, and turns out, shockingly enough, mine isn’t that different.” 

“Of course you already know about it.” Rena rolled her eyes. “Marinette really does tell you everything. Eventually, I will make one of you tell me how you got so close.” 

“I’ll sure you will,” said Ladybug with a wink. “But not today.” 

Rena hummed as she thought of what to say. She was having trouble focusing after _that_ , for some deeply mysterious reason. “It’s been wonderful. It really has. I’ve never seen Marinette so happy. Or relaxed! The girl needs to take a break sometimes, and no one person could have a chance of making her. Three, on the other hand… well, it’s a work in progress. Meanwhile, things with Nino have never been better. I can’t thank you enough for giving him his Miraculous.” 

“He earned it. No need to thank me.” 

“He did, but I’m going to thank you anyway. Where was I? Oh, right. Bug, whatever your deal is, I hope you and your partners at least have the chance to be open about it on the civilian side. Thanks to the son of a bitch that is Gabriel Agreste, we can’t. I mean, our class knows, but we still can’t be too obvious in public. The fucking tabloids absolutely cannot find out that Adrien Agreste is dating anyone other than Kagami Tsurugi, and certainly not that said other person is also dating her _and_ another girl. Any hint of it gets out, and the best we can hope is that Adrien will only be pulled out of school.” 

She sighed. “It’s hard. Part of me wants to beg you to give each of them a Miraculous, to let us be ourselves in the masks, but at the same time… Carapace and I are already a bit of a liability, don’t pretend we aren’t. We don’t need three more easily compromised heroes. Besides, I wouldn't forgive myself if anything happened to any of them.” 

Ladybug didn’t deny it. “I’d like to recruit them, Rena, I really would, but I can’t. For a number of reasons.” 

“I know. And it’s alright, really. Just wishful thinking. It’s not like we can’t find moments to ourselves. Really, I have it easy compared to poor Marinette. She has to go about pretending she isn’t dating _any_ of us.” 

“She’s strong. She’ll manage, for as long as she needs to.” 

“You don’t need to tell me that, Bug. But just because she can handle it doesn’t mean she should have to. It really isn’t fair.” Rena’s volume was starting to rise, anger seeping into her voice. “It really does all lead back to Adrien’s pathetic excuse of a father. The man is… well, it’s hard to say he’s the worst person I’ve ever met. He’ll be a hell of a lot harder to get rid of, though. There’s just no easy answer. Despite all that we mean to each other, we have to be patient.” She spat the last word out scornfully. 

Silence returned for some minutes before Ladybug spoke. “I know the feeling, Rena.” 

“Do you?” 

Ladybug rested her head on the taller hero’s shoulder. “I do.” 

Rena Rouge smiled. “I think… I think, that as much as I hate waiting, it’ll be worth it. Oh, and Bug?” 

“Yes?” 

“Stole ya girl.” 

The hero burst out laughing and gave her a shove. “You’re incorrigible.” 

“I’m not that bad once you get to know me. And hey, once we kick Papillon’s ass, I am doing everything in my power to set you two up. I’ve had plenty of practice matchmaking, may as well put it to use.” 

“Pass.” 

“Excuse me?” Rena raised an eyebrow, though the effect was diminished thanks to her mask. “Are you implying that you can do better than Marinette Dupain-Cheng? I’ll have you know-” 

The argument continued, but Ladybug, while only growing more and more red as Rena sung Marinette’s praises, fervently denied her feelings. Deception lay thick in the air, and if a simple call of “Reality” would clear it, Rena would do so in an instant. Alas, there was no magic behind these lies. Only a stubborn superhero. 

Rena Rouge would bring the truth to light, one way or another. And Alya Césaire slept peacefully that night, dreaming of the joy of the present and the promise of the future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alya’s opinion of Luka is mine. It took me a long time to trust that boy. Also, he’s definitely one of the other natural magic users. That “heartsong” bullshit and all.
> 
> Anyway! I don’t think I did too bad for my first real attempt at writing this universe. And this style of fic. Definitely rough in places, but that’s always going to be the case when I’m not playing directly to my strengths. The annoying thing about working on your weaknesses, though, is that you just keep finding more of them the more you push yourself. Meh. No way out but through.
> 
> Thanks for reading. And, while I can’t promise anything… before I even started on this, I was playing around with the idea of a fic about Marinette testing the glamour and seeing just how obvious she can be without her girlfriends figuring it out. This was written with the starting premise of that fic in mind. ~~Whether it ever becomes more than scattered notes and a handful of written pages remains to be seen, but it’s a possibility.~~ Figured y'all deserved an update on that. Especially after bringing this fic to the five digit hits mark, which, _wow_. Anyway, sequel will happen. ~~I have a bit more plotting to do, but a few major inspiration strikes recently have developed it enough that I can't possibly not write it.~~ It's done. Hence why this work is now part of a series.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Justice for Alya (And Adrien. And The Rest Of The Class): enigmaticEditor's "Outfoxed"](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25998481) by [Keyseeker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keyseeker/pseuds/Keyseeker)




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